Staff Reporter :
Senior Ministers on Thursday termed the members of search committee as the personalities with clean image and urged Bangladesh Nationalist Party to refrain from making the body controversial.
They also called upon the BNP to show positive attitude towards the newly formed six-member search committee assigned to reconstitute the next Election Commission (EC).
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader came up with these remarks in separate programmes yesterday.
They also termed the search committee members as non-political, free from moral fault, untarnished and virtuous.
Earlier on Wednesday President Abdul Hamid formed a six-member search committee after holding a series of talks with 31 registered political parties on formation of the new EC.
As soon as the members’ names of search committee was announced on Wednesday, BNP expressed its disappointment over the committee. The party said that the committee consists of people who may try to help the ruling party come to power again. They fear political turmoil in the country following the formation of what they call a biased search committee. They also allege that the president’s dialogue with various political parties was just a show.
BNP suspects that the government will form the new Election Commission ignoring the opinion of other political parties. “We’ve not only got disappointed but also aggrieved,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in his instant reaction said. Tofail Ahmed, also member of the Advisory Council of ruling Awami League (AL) said if the BNP makes the search committee controversial, the party would be affected. “Whatever we do, BNP always opposes it. However, the party after the talks with the President had expressed satisfaction. And it also welcomed the President’s initiative,” he told journalists at his Secretariat office yesterday after a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Masato Watanabe. “I think the search committee formed comprising the personalities with clean image, is a neutral one. And I believe that BNP will take part in the next general elections under the new Election Commission to be constituted as per the search committee’s recommendations,” he added.
Mohammad Nasim, also AL Presidium Member on Thursday said the BNP should show positive attitude towards the search committee in a bid to form the new EC.
“The members of the search committee are respected personalities of the society. So, the remarks over its neutrality made by BNP Secretary General Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are not correct,” he said while paying a visit to the ENT Hospital at Tejgaon here. He said the President formed the search committee in accordance with the power bestowed upon him by the Constitution. “The committee will only suggest names for formation of the Election Commission,” Mohammad Nasim said, adding political parties should wait until formation of the EC instead of making comments, he suggested.
“Judges do not do politics for any political party. Does any teacher do politics? They are in different professions for their own quality. They are well known to the people,” he said.
Obaidul Quader, also AL General Secretary on Thursday thanked the President for forming a neutral search committee, which members are non-political, dignified and neutral.
“The President didn’t recommend any political person,” he said while addressing the concluding session of the weeklong ‘Madhu Mela’ in remembrance of 192th birth anniversary of world-renowned poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta at Sagardari in Keshabpur Upazila in Jessore district yesterday.
He said also thanked the President for selecting a personality like Dhaka University Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam as search committee member.
“I’m giving thanks to the President as he has made Manzoorul Islam one of the members of search committee. There is no question about Manzoorul Islam as he is an honest, dignified and non-political person,” he said.
The members of search committee are Supreme Court Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, High Court Division Judge Obaidul Hassan, Bangladesh Public Service Commission Chairman Dr Muhammed Sadique, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of Bangladesh Masud Ahmed, Dhaka University Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam and Chittagong University Pro-Vice Chancellor Shirin Akhter.
The committee will recommend the names of the members for reconstitution of the EC ahead of the next Parliamentary polls. The next Commission, which will have five commissioners, will be in office for a five years term. The tenure of the current EC members expires on February 8.
