The National Consensus Commission on Wednesday morning began the 18th day of its second-round dialogue with political parties, aiming to reach decisions on key reform issues, with three parties staging a symbolic walkout.
The discussion commenced around 11am at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital, with NCC Vice Chair Prof Ali Riaz in the chair.
At the outset, three left-leaning parties—the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), BaSaD, and Bangladesh JaSaD—staged a symbolic 10-minute walkout in protest of what they called the interim government’s “authoritarian conduct” following Monday’s deadly crash of a jet at Milestone School and College in Diabari, Uttara.
“We are deeply shocked and outraged. This heinous attack on teachers, students, and women following the Milestone incident is the shadow of what we witnessed during past autocratic regimes,” CPB President Ruhin Hossain Prince said during the protest.
“We have seen gross irresponsibility here (following the air crash),” he said, questioning why two advisers of the interim government visited the Uttara crash site but had not gone to Gopalganj after another recent incident there.
“It is the same shadow of autocracy,” he said, adding that one adviser even claimed the incident was part of a conspiracy against the government, "much like autocratic Sheikh Hasina used to say in the past after such incidents."
The leaders of the two other parties also joined and endorsed the protest.
Reacting to the walkout, Prof Ali Riaz said: “We welcome what rights they exercised as political parties and citizens. We think their views have been presented and the government will consider it.”
Turning to the reform dialogue, he urged the political parties to prepare for extended sessions on Sunday and Monday to finalise decisions ahead of the July 31 deadline.
Several key issues, including the formation of an appointment committee for five critical state institutions, are being discussed in this 17th session of the second-round dialogue.
Around 30 political parties—including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party (NCP)—are participating in the talks to present their positions on the proposed reforms.
The commission aims to finalise a unified stance on core reform proposals by July 31, after completing discussions on nearly 20 major constitutional issues during this second-round dialogue.
Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus, also the commission chair, inaugurated the second-round talks on June 2.
The commission, formed on February 15 under Yunus’s leadership, was mandated to forge a national consensus on critical state reforms. It conducted its first-round dialogue with political parties and alliances between March 20 and May 19.