Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked her cabinet colleagues to submit their resignation as soon as possible so that the process of forming the polls-time government can be accelerated.
A senior minister, who is a lawmaker from the greater Mymensingh area, told the Dhaka Tribune after cabinet meeting on Monday.
“We have been asked to submit resignation as soon as possible so that she [the prime minister] can start selecting new members of the cabinet and complete forming the polls-time government in 15 days. The ministers and state ministers may submit resignation in a day or two,” he said.
Meeting sources said the prime minister would accept the resignations of only those cabinet members whom she intended to leave out from the interim government.
Another senior minister, an MP from the Chittagong area, told the Dhaka Tribune that the premier had hinted that she was ready to step down
as the head of government if the opposition came to a dialogue to discuss all-party government and the two parties reached a consensus on the issue of the polls-time government.
The prime minister has repeatedly said in the past that she and her party were ready to make the “highest sacrifice” for upholding the country’s constitution and the democratic process.
In a televised nation address last month, she proposed the formula for an all-party government – comprising elected parliament members – to oversee the national elections and requested the opposition to send names of their lawmakers for the interim cabinet.
Snubbing out the PM’s proposal soon after, opposition leader Khaleda Zia proposed her own formula for a non-partisan polls-time government, comprising past advisers from what she said were two “successful” former caretaker governments of 1996 and 2001.
A junior minister, also a lawmaker from Rangpur, who attended on Monday’s cabinet meeting, said the prime minister would complete the process of forming the polls-time all-party government in 15 days, even if main opposition BNP did not come to a dialogue or decided to join the ad hoc administration.
“All the cabinet members must submit resignation letters. Only the letters from those will be accepted whom the premier does not want to keep in the interim cabinet. Other senior ministers will continue with the polls-time cabinet as per the PM’s desire,” he added.
He also informed that the new members of the interim government would be picked from those political parties that had representation in the current parliament. Jamaat-e-Islami would not qualify because, what he said, it had been accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence.
The government will wait until the polls-time government is formed, for BNP to either join the government or a dialogue.
Expressing willingness to submit resignation in a day or two, the senior minister from Chittagong said: “As far as we know, Matia Chowdhury, Syed Ashraful Islam, AMA Muhith, Hasanul Haq Inu and Suranjit Sengupta may continue with the polls-time government. New faces like Tofail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu and Rashed Khan Menon may join the new cabinet to make it heavyweight.”
“Opposition lawmakers will also be included in the new cabinet if they desire to be part of the polls-time government. But, the number of members in the new cabinet will not exceed 20. The new cabinet may take charge before the announcement of the election schedules,” he added.
Meanwhile, after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public procurement, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters that the all-party government would be formed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned from Sri Lanka on November 17 attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
