The main opposition BNP last night discussed replying US Secretary of State John Kerry’s letter to party chief Khaleda Zia and resigning from parliament if the ruling Awami League plans to hold the next general elections under its rule.
A number of senior leaders of the party held the meeting at party chairperson’s Gulshan office, but one of the leaders said they could not reach any decision on the matters.
BNP leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, MK Anwar, Moudud Ahmed, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Osman Farruk and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir were present at the meeting.
Earlier, a senior BNP leader claimed that an official of the UN told him it had not got any response from Bangladesh government regarding a dialogue on the polls-time administration on the side line of the UN General Assembly.
“A UN official informed us that they did not get any response from the government side regarding the dialogue,” BNP Vice-Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had invited the Awami League and the BNP to send their delegations to the UNGA so that they can engage in a dialogue there to settle Bangladesh’s polls-time government issue.
Asked whether BNP would send any team to UNGA, he said: “If the ruling party does not go there, what will we do going there?”
Shamsher Mobin declined to disclose who made the phone call. A few other senior leaders of the party said they heard about the issue but they were not sure who made the call.
US Secretary of State John Kerry sent letters to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia this Sunday, urging the two top leaders to find a way to hold free, fair and credible elections.
US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena had gone to the Prime Minister’s Office and the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office to hand over Kerry’s letters. BNP leader Shamsher Mobin received the letter for Khaleda.
In May, Ban Ki-moon had Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernández-Taranco apparently to create a ground for a political dialogue.
Taranco met the PM, the opposition leader, the speaker of parliament, the chief election commissioner, leaders of different political parties and select civil society members. After the meetings he expressed concerns that time was running out for finding a solution towards holding of free, fair, credible and non-violent elections.
Kerry wrote to the two top leaders just 15 days after the UN secretary-general’s phone calls requesting them to reach an amicable solution.
On August 21, Chinese envoy Li Jun told reporters that he was trying to encourage dialogue between the two political rivals.
Earlier on April 17, ambassadors of Arab and Muslim-majority countries based in Dhaka met Khaleda and discussed “possible ways out” of the current political crisis.
