Staf Reporter :
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)’s 43rd founding anniversary will be observed on Wednesday.
The party set to celebrate the day across the country in a low-key manner due to the Covid-19 pandemic, party sources said.
BNP and its associate wings have taken up various programs, including discussion, posturing and charity activities to mark the founding anniversary.
As per the schedules, the party flag will be
hoisted atop its Naya Paltan central office and all other BNP offices across the country at 6am on Wednesday.
On September 1, 1978, then President Ziaur Rahman founded the party with a 19-point program.
Ziaur Rahman became its first chairman.
On Wednesday, the party’s standing committee members will place wreaths and offer Fatiha at the grave of Ziaur Rahman in the capital at 11am on the day.
Later, the leaders and activists of the party’s Dhaka south and north units will also place wreaths at Zia’s grave at 11:30am.
Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (DAB) will arrange a health camp on the ground floor of the BNP’s central office at 12 noon where medicines and treatment equipment will be provided for the Covid patients.
The party will also arrange a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club on Thursday.
Associate bodies of the party and all other units across the country are set to mark the day by holding various programs, including discussions and providing assistance to Covid-infected patients and poor people.
In 42 years’ journey of the party it had been in power for four times and in the opposition bench twice.
BNP has been out of power for nearly 13 years since the 1/11 political changeover.
Ziaur Rahman’s wife Begum Khaleda Zia became the party Chairperson after the assassination of the BNP founder.
On on the occasion of the anniversary, party’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, the elder son of Zia and Khaleda Zia, and Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in separate messages congratulated the people of the country, party leaders, activists and well-wishers.
In February 1978, Zia floated Jatiyatabadi Ganatantrik Dal with then Vice-President Justice Abdus Sattar as its head. For the presidential election, Zia himself became a presidential candidate to lead an electoral combine consisting of six political parties. He won a all-inclusive victory securing 76.67pc of the votes.
