A group of incumbent and former government officials held a meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office yesterday.
Around 20 government functionaries, mainly OSDs (Officers on Special Duty) and BNP-minded officials, were asked to form a Janatar Mancha-like platform to mount pressure on the government, meeting sources said.
The former premier reportedly asked the visiting officials to launch an anti-government platform like that of 1996.
In 1996, the then opposition Awami League city unit chief Mohammad Hanif organised Janatar Mancha, a platform to mobilise government officials against the then ruling BNP to force it out of office.
The visiting secretariat officials, led by Joint Secretary AKM Jahangir, went to the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office around 7:45pm. Another 20 officials joined the meeting.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia reached her office at 9:20pm. The party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir entered the office minutes ahead of his party chief.
Around 10:20pm some of the officials began to leave. Others were still at the meeting when this report was filed at midnight. When approached by the press, the officials refused to comment. Thirteen government officers secretly met in Uttara at the house of former energy adviser Mahmudur Rahman on November 24, 2006.
At 11:30pm, Khaleda’s Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan told journalists: “I do not know whether there was any scheduled meeting. Like on other days, many people come to meet Madam [Khaleda].”
Asked whether any of the visitors were government officials, Khan said: “Only the government can tell you that.”
At 10:30pm Khaleda’s adviser and former secretary MA Halim left the office and told journalists that there was no scheduled meeting.
Asked about who was meeting with Khaleda, Halim remained silent.
Asked how many secretariat officials were present, Halim said: “I am also a former secretary. I do not know anything about a secretaries’ meeting.”
Usually when there is any programme at the BNP chairperson’s office, journalists are allowed to enter the office but they were restricted last night.
Sources said some other officials were also scheduled to attend the programme but because of intelligence surveillance, they skipped it even after almost reaching the office.
On September 16, the state minister for public administration told parliament that 138 officials were made OSD in the last nine months.
Various sources said Senior Assistant Secretary Ehsanul Haque, Ibrahim Miazee, administrative officer of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taufiqul Islam of the same ministry, Nurul Islam of the Jute and Textile Ministry, Abdul Mannan and AKM Humayun Kabir of the Local Government Ministry, Sarkar Toha of the Environment and Forest Ministry, Badiul Kabir of the Public Administration Ministry, Shahidul Haque of the Information ministry and Mujahidul Islam Selim of the cabinet division attended the meeting.
The party, in a press release issued around 12:15 pm, alleged that reports of a closed door meeting between the BNP chairperson and government officials were false.
“This completely false, fabricated and motivated news was disseminated to mislead the people. There is no basis for such news,” the release said.
The party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir harshly condemned the airing of what he called “false news.”
‘US-BD ties worsen’
The BNP yesterday claimed that bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States was badly affected following the recent comments of Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam about US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena.
“What was the benefit of making such comments? Bangladesh’s relations with the United States has been worsened,” Fakhrul said addressing a programme organised to mark the seventh founding anniversary of Bangladesh Kalyan Party at the National Press Club in the capital.
“The Awami League-led government has no friends across the globe, and that is why there is no foreign investment in the country,” he said.
“The country is heading toward a dreadful economic recession, but the Awami League is yet to understand it,” the BNP leader said.
Syed Ashraf, also LGRD minister, recently called Biswal “a minister of two bits” and Mozena a “housemaid.”
Fakhrul said: “In today’s [yesterday] newspapers, I saw some good news for the Bangladeshi people. Bangladesh has progressed in corruption!”
Fakhrul, the spokesperson of the BNP, said one more push is required to oust the “fascist” government from office as they had already lost their ground and become bankrupt.
“This autocratic and fascist Awami League government has to be ousted to establish a people’s government,” he said. “We have to establish a government that can change the nasty political culture and the people’s fate,” he added.