Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina phoned Opposition Leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia over cellphone this (Saturday) evening requesting her to withdraw their three-day hartal and meet her at Ganobhaban over dinner on Monday for talks over the election-time cabinet.
The much-awaited phone call was made around 6:20 pm after a daylong drama over the telephonic conversation.
During the 40-minute conversation, the Prime Minister urged the opposition leader to withdraw the hartal, and invited her to dinner at Ganobhaban on Monday.
The Prime Minister made the phone call to the opposition leader over the cellphone of a personal staff of Khaleda Zia as her red phone in her Gulshan residence is out of order.
About the inoperative red phone of the opposition leader, the Prime Minister said she would enquire about the matter tomorrow. “I myself made the phone call to you. I repeatedly called you. But you somehow couldn’t attend the call. I’m sorry. I’ll look into it tomorrow.”
The Prime Minister went on: “I don’t know whether the phone was dead or made dead. I’ll enquire about it tomorrow.”
Turning to her invitation to Khaleda to Ganobhaban, Hasina said. “I want you to have dinner with me on Monday and you can bring as many guests as you wish.”
Hasina, however, requested Khaleda Zia to give her a list of how many members will attend the dinner.
Earlier, Sheikh Hasina tried to reach Khaleda Zia over ‘red phone’ but ‘failed’.
After the first attempt by the PM to reach the opposition leader went in vein in the afternoon, PM’s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad had said the opposition leader would call back the Prime Minister at 6pm.
However, BNP chairperson’s press secretary Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel told UNB that the Prime Minister would call the opposition leader at 6pm as per the discussion between Prime Minister’s Office and the opposition leader’s special assistant.
He also claimed that the red phone of the opposition leader in which the Prime Minister reportedly tried to reach her has long been out of order.
PM’s special assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil (Media) told UNB that the Prime Minister tried to reach Khaleda Zia over red phone from 1:15 pm to 1:45 pm.
Advisers to the Prime Minister HT Imam, Dr Syed Modasser Ali and Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Awami League advisory council members Tafail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu and party general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam were present during the phone call.
Source: UNBConnect
