Obaidul: No scope for BNP to have technocrat minister in polls-time government

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Thursday said there is no scope for BNP to have any technocrat ministers in the polls-time interim government as the party has no representation in parliament. "This time they [BNP] won't be given any proposal either," he told journalists at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat. "In 2014, the government offered them the Home Ministry which was an open secret and everybody knew about it, but they turned it down. Now, there's no scope for BNP." Obaidul, also general secretary of the ruling Awamin League, said whether BNP would join the election or not entirely depends on them. "The ‘election train’ wouldn't stop moving for them. This time people will resist them and they'll never be able to stop the election." He, however, added that it is BNP’s right to participate in the election. In response to a remark of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir about Tarique Rahman holding BNP's chairmanship, Quader said: “Tarique has been convicted in graft cases and his mother Khaleda Zia is now in jail for graft. So, it proves that the party is a corrupt one. "As Tarique is a fugitive convict, the government will try to bring him back." Talking about BNP's movement for “restoration” of democracy, he claimed:  "There's no respite in BNP's movement, but people do not respond to them."‘It’s our decision, not yours’ On Wednesday, reacting sharply to Awami League chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s comment that the BNP should not have put a convict at the helm, Fakhrul said the BNP had chosen Tarique as its acting chairman because he is fit to lead the party. “It’s our decision. We’ve picked him [Tarique] because he is qualified for the post. You [Hasina] should have nothing to say here. Making such comments is not acceptable,” he said, claiming that the charges of corruption and money laundering for which Tarique is convicted were “baseless”. “You lifted the cases against yourselves. Let’s see what happens if the cases continue and the courts act independently.”