BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said that the interim government must maintain a completely neutral stance. They also must be alert to ensure that the political agenda of any quarter is not part of their plan of action.
Mirza Fakhrul was addressing a press briefing at 11:00 the morning today, Saturday, at the BNP chairperson`s office in Gulshan of the capital, reports Prothom Alo.
Earlier on Thursday, BNP held its standing committee meeting. The decisions taken at the meeting were presented at today`s press briefing.
In the written statement presented by the BNP secretary general, it was said apprehensions have entered the public mind as certain advisors within the interim government are directly or indirectly involved in the formation of a political party. Indications and evidence are also emerging of the administration being used in this process, which does not bode well for the nation or for democracy.
Mirza Fakhrul also said there was no scope for irrelevant debate over whether the election should be held first or reforms carried out first. He said, "Reforms are a continual process and so the election and reforms can continue side by side. A charter of reforms can be drawn up based on consensus of all political parties. The elected government will later implement this."
Addressing the press briefing, Mirza Fakhrul said that the main task of the interim government is to speedily complete the necessary reforms on the basis of consensus, hold a free and fair national election and hand over power to the elected government.
The elected government will fulfill the expectations of the people regarding reforms based on consensus. He feels that an elected government that is committed to the people, justice and good governance will be able to carry out credible reforms.
The reports of the reform commissions include various recommendations and opinions regarding post-fascism reforms. The BNP secretary general said that long before that, on 13 July 2023 BNP created a basis for this in their 31-point proposal for democratic reforms in the state structure.
The spreadsheet sent by the national reforms commission to the political parties for their opinion only had options for "yes" or "no". The spreadsheet had around 70 recommendations, but the main report had around 12 recommendations, said BNP.
Similarly, the main report of the electoral reforms commission had 150 recommendations, but the spreadsheet had only 27. And most of these were about constitutional reforms. So BNP feels that confusions could be avoided of opinions on the main recommendations were added.
At the press briefing it was pointed out that the state of the spreadsheet, the statements of the commission members at various times and the statement of certain political parties bear similarity. Mirza Fakhrul Islam said that question can arise about these being part of a predetermined plan of action. It is hard to discern if these are actually in the interests of democracy.
The BNP secretary general said that a review of the recommendations indicate an unjustified attempt to placed unelected persons in charge of the state in the future, which is unwarranted.
Present at the press briefing were BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Selina Rahman, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud, Salahuddin Ahmed and others.
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