Staff Reporter :
Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), has called on the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to find a political way forward between all the parties in Bangladesh a conversation on Friday.
“The Secretary-General, I think, expressed his opinion in the way we’ve been expressing it here, which is to call to find a political way forward between all the parties in Bangladesh,” the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said at a daily press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, USA on Monday. He made the remarks when a questioner wanted to know what the UN Chief had exactly told Hasina and her press secretary after city polls in Bangladesh.
“You know, we do not have a readout to share,” he added.
During the telephonic conversation with Sheikh Hasina, the UN Secretary General expressed concern over BNP’s withdrawal from the recently concluded City Corporation elections of Dhaka and Chittagong midway through.
He also said the UN had been informed about some irregularities in the elections.
Ban Ki-moon informed the Prime Minister that he had given responsibility to the UN Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez Taranco to hold talks on over all situations.
Taranco also came to Bangladesh in 2012 and 2013 as UN Secretary-General’s envoy to mend differences between the Awami League and BNP.
He urged the two parties to sit together for talks to find out solution to the political crisis.
Earlier, Ban Ki-moon also sent letters to Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina and her arch-rival BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia asking them to engage in a dialogue to end the ongoing political crisis in last February.
The UN Chief also wrote to the two leaders before 2014 general elections as well, setting out similar calls for ending violence.
