Not joining parliament was a wrong decision: Fakhrul

Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has defended BNP leaders’ oath-taking in parliament saying that their acting chairman has taken the right decision over this.

“We had previously said we wouldn’t join. That decision was not correct at the time,” he said at an event organised by the Sammilito Chhatra Forum at National Press Club in the capital city on Sunday.

The programme was held commemorating the fourth death anniversary of former Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal president Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu.

BNP secured six seats in the 11th parliament election held on 30 December last year. Terming the election a farce, the party decided not to join parliament, that none of the elected candidates would take oath. Eventually, however, five of them were sworn in, with Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir desisting.

Zahidur Rahman was the first among them to take oath and he was expelled for going against the party decision. Then four more of the MPs-elect, Harunur Rashid, Aminul Islam, Abdus Sattar and Mosharraf Hossain, took oath. This was, reportedly, in keeping with party decision.

Addressing party leaders and activists at the event today, Sunday, Mirza Fakhrul said, cheap slogans mean nothing. “The party’s acting chairman has taken the correct decision because our struggle must be from both sides,” he said, adding, “we must protest from inside and also from outside.”

The BNP secretary general said, “We had said initially that we would not join. That was not the correct decision at the time. I have no hesitation to admit that. We must fight from all sides. We must struggle. We must prepare the way forward.”

Mirza Fakhrul said that there was no democracy is the country and that Awami League was not a democratic party. It only spoke about democracy, but believed quite the contrary. The party had been oppressing the people of Bangladesh for the past 10 years and had destroyed the democratic institutions, he said.

Mirza Fakhrul went on to say that the judiciary, the law and the election commission had been completely politicised. Control had been clamped on the media. “Democracy cannot function here,” he said.

Recalling the role of the former party leader, Mirza Fakhrul said, “Pintu did not die naturally. He was killed.”

Also speaking at the event, BNP executive committee member Abu Naser Muhammad Rahmatullah said that if Mirza Fakhrul led the party leaders and workers correctly, then many leaders like Pintu would emerge. “He was killed in a planned manner without any medical treatment,” Abu Naser said.

Sammilito Chhatra Forum convener Nahidur Islam presided over the programme which was also addressed by BNP organising secretary Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu, publicity secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury and others.