BNP leader Salahuddin hints movement demanding election

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party may announce a programme to put the government under pressure regarding holding an election in the quickest possible time.

He said that the BNP is going to take initiatives to bring back the government on the right track by correcting their mistakes and to clear the way for a political government. These initiatives can be called criticisms of the government or a movement.

BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmad made these remarks at an event in the capital's Jatiya Press Club today, Wednesday. Bangladesh Journalist Association organised the event titled “July Uprising: News Media and Journalism”.

Addressing the event BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said, “The government may commit mistakes. It’s not right that all the decisions taken by the interim government will be right. They too can make mistakes. It is the duty of the journalists, political parties and democratic and civic forces to correct them.”

He further said, “From that perspective we are planning to announce programmes very soon to bring back the government on the right track by correcting their mistakes to build a road towards democracy to clear the way for a political government. You may call it a movement or criticism of the government.”

He said, “It is a good quality of this government that it corrects immediately in case of criticisms regarding any wrong decision they have taken. To ensure the success of this interim government, we have to criticise. We may have to take to the street.”

The interim government has completed six months and already four commissions have submitted their reports. Referring to this, Salahuddin Ahmed said, “It has been 14-15 days since the reform commissions submitted the reports. However, there has been no initiative to discuss those with the stakeholders as yet.

He expects the government to identify some common issues where it is easy to reach a consensus and work on those first.

Speaking regarding the reports submitted by the reform commissions, he said they missed some issues. Besides, some additional issues came up in the reports which cannot be implemented. There is no guarantee that the recommendations made by the commissions are 100 per cent right.

Salahuddin Ahmed said the people of the country will decide whether the Awami League will be allowed to take part in the polls. A party which took a Fascist role and committed genocide must be brought to book as a political organisation. There was a plan to amend a specific law in the International Crime Tribunal Act to bring Awami League to book as a party. However, the government later moved away from this.

The BNP leaders also welcomed the student initiative to form a new political party.