‘Election in one or one-and-half years’

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim has said the next national polls will be held under Prme Minister Sheikh Hasina within the next one or one-and-a-half years. Addressing a meeting of the District Law and Order Coordination Committee at Pabna Circuit House on Saturday, he also suggested that BNP should not try to make an issue of it, rather seat with the Election Commission to make it stronger. Nasim, who is also the spokesman of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, also alleged that it is BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia who had made the caretaker government system controversial by making former president Yajuddin the head of the caretaker government in 2007. The controversial system was abolished by an amendment to the Constitution and there is no way to return to that system, he added. The meeting was presided over by Pabna Deputy Commissioner Rekha Rani Bala.