The country’s business leaders on Tuesday described their experience during the caretaker regime of 2007 as “not a happy one” and said they did not want to see an illegitimate entity in government again.
“We do not want any third force assuming power again as our experience of the third force after 1/11 was not a happy one,” Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, the president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI), said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
The apex trade body arranged the press briefing to discuss ways to overcome the ongoing political crisis and to put pressure on the ruling party and the opposition to resolve the unrest through constructive negotiation.
The business leaders said business across the country had stalled due to the 60-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party Alliance.
The opposition called the hartal to put pressure on the government to hold the upcoming general elections under a non-partisan government.
In response to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s proposal for an all-party interim government to administer the election, opposition leader Khaleda Zia proposed a non-partisan government comprising 10 advisers from the “successful” caretaker governments of 1996 and 2001.
Ahmed told the press conference the FBCCI was planning to meet both Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia to request them to reach a consensus.
“We are trying to get appointments from the prime minister and the opposition leader. I am hopeful that we will be able to get them today and meet the two leaders tomorrow,” Akram told the Dhaka Tribune over phone later in the evening.
He said the both government and the opposition should come forward to find a peaceful solution.
Replying to a query at the conference as to what the business leaders would do if the unrest continued, the FBCCI president said, “We will not sit idle if our backs are pushed against the wall.”
“We will turn around and try to find a way out of this. We do not want to see any third force in power again. We want a peaceful solution to the political crises and to do business smoothly.”
