Press secretary expects Jamaat to join consensus commission meeting Wednesday

Chief adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam has expressed hope that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami will take part in Wednesday’s talks with the National Consensus Commission and political parties.

“We have spoken to Jamaat-e-Islami. We believe they will join tomorrow’s discussions,” said Shafiqul Alam.

He made the remarks at a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.

Regarding allegations of biased activities of the government and the National Consensus Commission, Shafiqul Alam said, “We are trying to maintain a completely neutral stance. We consider all political parties that took part in the mass uprising to be equally important. We believe the consensus commission is maintaining its neutrality. The ongoing discussions by the commission to implement reforms are extremely important.”

Claiming that the government maintains neutrality towards every party involved in the mass uprising, Shafiqul Alam said, “We are equally neutral towards all. We don’t know why Jamaat-e-Islami didn’t join today’s discussion. However, we’ve spoken with them, and we believe they will take part tomorrow.”

Earlier today, at around 11:45am, the second phase of the unfinished discussions between the political parties and the national consensus commission began at the Doel Hall of the Foreign Service Academy in the capital. Jamaat-e-Islami did not take part in this discussion.

A source in the national consensus commission said that Jamaat-e-Islami had informed them it would not attend today’s meeting. The party cited as its reason that it felt “ignored” in the joint statement issued after the meeting between the chief adviser and BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman during the former’s recent visit to London. As a mark of protest, Jamaat decided not to join today’s discussions.