Barrister Rafiq urges AL, BNP
Eminent lawyer Barrister Rafiq-ul Huq yesterday stressed the need for a dialogue and compromise between the heads of ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP to determine the polls-time government system.
If the chiefs of AL and BNP don’t agree to sit in the dialogue, their general secretary and secretary general respectively can hold it for the sake of a free and fair election, he observed.
The veteran lawyer said this while addressing a lecture-programme on “Recent Bangladesh” organised by rights organisation Mukto Chinta at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
Rafiq-ul said five lawmakers each of AL, BNP and Jatiya Party could be selected to form the election-period government who would determine their head.
“There is no scope to bring back 1/11-like situation in the country and there should be no ‘minus-two formula’ as those are not acceptable to people,” he said, adding, “plus-two” formula could be in place instead.
The next parliamentary election has to be held under a neutral government and it might be called the “caretaker government” or “interim government”, he added.
Replying to a question, Rafiq-ul, the lawyer for both AL President Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, however, said he would not take any direct initiative to bring the two leaders to a dialogue as he has become “older”.
He also refused to make any answer to the question whether he would agree to become the head of the polls-time government.
The legal expert mentioned that there is no practice of democracy inside the country’s political parties.
He claimed leaders for different posts of the ruling AL were selected by Hasina at the party’s recently held national council, though there should have been a vote to that end.
The similar situation persists in BNP and nobody dares to oppose the two leaders which is more than dictatorship, he observed.
The lawyer said there are many problems in the country, although the present government has taken many positive steps despite its limitations.
The government has distributed free textbooks among students on the first day of the year, which no other governments could do.
He also praised the government for nationalising jobs of 1.04 lakh teachers of 26,193 non-government primary schools.
Rafiq-ul however criticised the government for spraying liquid gas on the teachers agitating for monthly pay order (MPO).
On Bishwajit Das killing, he said BCL men killed him and everyone saw it on television. But the home minister said the killers had not belonged to the BCL, which is unacceptable, he added.
Bishwajit was killed by BCL men during a blockade programmed of BNP-led 18-party alliance on December 9 last year.
The legal expert further said the government has arrested BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in connection with political cases. But the lower court has refused to grant him bail which is also unfortunate, as, it is said, the judiciary has become independent.
Rafiq-ul Huq refused to comment on the Skype conversation between Justice Md Nizamul Huq, former chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, and Bangladeshi expatriate legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin about the tribunal proceedings, saying the matter is subjudice.
Coordinator of Mukto Chinta Amirul Momenin Manik and its convener Ashish Sen also spoke on the occasion.
Source: The Daily Star
