BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia slammed the party’s Dhaka unit leaders for their “failure” during the street movement to resist the January 5 poll and threatened to form a new committee dissolving the existing one.
Party insiders said, in the closed-door meeting held for over an hour, the leaders described why they had not been able to play their due role during the non-stop agitation that began after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule on November 25.
“This [Dhaka] committee has failed to carry out their duties. They even failed to form ward and thana committees within two years. Some pocket committees were formed and they were not on the streets. So I will declare a new committee soon,” said a city leader quoting Khaleda.
She also observed that other associate and front organisations had also been quite inactive. After the formation of the city committee, those bodies would be reformed as well.
“Khaleda Zia said ‘you never took the street. When I was evicted from my cantonment residence, none opened fire and at that time, you were not seen on the streets. You have failed,’” a senior leader said seeking anonymity.
Admitting their failure, the city leaders said they had not been courageous enough to face the law enforcers who “opened fire” on them. Abdus Salam, member secretary of the unit, urged Khaleda to pardon them and form the new committee from all the leaders.
This made Khaleda fuming who then said: “[How dare] you dictate me! Do I have to ask you who I will keep in the committee? Shut up!”
The former premier said the new city committee would be formed soon and it would then form the ward committees through council. She said the decision of splitting the city unit would be made at the party’s Standing Committee meeting.
When the meeting started, the city unit leaders and activists chanted slogans in favour of their leaders.
“The party chairperson will assign some leaders to form an effective Dhaka city committee. Those leaders will form the ward-level committees through elections within a month and then a new city committee will be formed through the council,” Salam told reporters waiting outside Khaleda’s Gulshan office.
The city unit was formed on May 14, 2011 with Sadeque Hossain Khoka as its convener and Salam the member secretary. It was asked to form the ward and the thana-level committees within six months.
Khaleda had repeatedly asked the city unit leaders to take to the streets but they did not pay any heed, rather went into hiding to avert arrest. After the January 5 election, she said the committees would be reformed before waging movement.
