Four civil society bodies on Sunday contradicted part of the statement made by Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam saying the claim that no representative of the ruling party was invited to the dialogue organised by them “is not true”.
The civil society bodies – Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) Civic Movement for Good Governance (Sujan) and Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) issued a joint statement in this regard on Sunday.
In the joint statement, the civil society bodies stated that their attention has been drawn to the statement made at a press briefing on Sunday by Syed Ashraful Islam saying that no representative of Bangladesh Awami League was invited to the ‘Dialogue Bangladesh in Crisis: Citizens’ Perspectives’ held on Saturday.
The statement read: “ In such context, the organisers of the dialogue would like to provide the information that on behalf of the organisers, on December 24, CPD Executive Director invited HT Imam, Adviser to the Prime Minister and Co-Chairman of Election Conducting Committee of Awami League, to participate in the discussion, to which he gave his kind consent.
On December 25, HT Imam called the Executive Director, CPD to inform about his inability to join the dialogue since the election manifesto of the Awami League was scheduled to be released on the same day of the dialogue, it added.
The statement said: “CPD Chairman had also invited Adviser to the Prime Minister on International Affairs Dr Gowher Rizvi to the dialogue. Iqbal Sobahan Chowdhury, Press and Media Advisor to the Prime Minster, gave his consent to join the dialogue when contacted by the organisers.”
Anisul Islam Mahmud, Minister for Water Resources, was also scheduled to join the dialogue. However, his plane could not land in Dhaka from Chittagong the previous evening because of heavy fog, said the Rejoinder.
Besides it has mentioned the name of a number of other ruling party leaders, who were invited to attend the dialogue.
According to the statement, Awami League leaders who were contacted through email, telephone or SMS included Suranjit Sengupta, MP, Mohammad Nasim, Major General (retd) Kazi Mohammad Shafiullah (Bir Uttam), Presidium Member of Awami League Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, Vice Principal Md Abdus Shahid, MP, Lt Col (retd) Muhammad Faruk Khan, MP, Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, MP, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Meher Afroz, MP, Reza Ali, MP, Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, M Israfil Alam, MP, Sagufta Yasmin, MP and AKM Mayeedul Islam, MP.
“Thus, the statement made by the Bangladesh Awami League General Secretary that no representative of Bangladesh Awami League was invited to the dialogue organised by the CPD, ASK, SHUJAN and TIB is not true,” the statement said.