The BNP may propose formation of a search committee to choose the chief of a “non-partisan and neutral” government to run the next general election, party insiders said.
The committee should comprise retired chief justices or some other widely-accepted persons and it will propose names to the president of the republic to choose one of them as the chief of the polls-time government, a senior leader of the party said after a meeting of the BNP-led 18-party alliance last night.
LDP President Oli Ahmed floated the idea of the search committee, Shawkat Hossain Nilu, chief of National People’s Party, told the Dhaka Tribune last night.
Party insiders said the leader of the opposition is likely to present a counter proposal on the polls-time interim government at a press briefing today.
Though the main opposition may keep the option for a dialogue open to end the political standoff, it will not accept Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as chief of polls-time interim administration, meeting sources said.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will make the party’s position clear at a media briefing today. “The press conference will be held at Hotel Westin at 4pm,” says a press release signed by the chairperson’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan.
She might give a broad outline of the interim government to oversee the next general election, Nilu said.
The BNP chief discussed all aspects with the alliance partners in the hour-long meeting at her Gulshan office to firm up their position on the proposal put forward by the prime minister on Friday.
“The alliance leader will brief today about our stance on the prime minister’s statement,” Andaleeve Rahman Partha, chairman of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, told the Dhaka Tribune last night.
Abdul Latif Nezami, chairman of Islami Oikya Jote, told the Dhaka Tribune that Khaleda would present a formula of the election-time government today.
He said they had decided to hold the October 25 rally at any cost.