Staff Reporter :
Gono Forum President and Jatiya Oikyafront leader Dr Kamal Hossain has written a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina again seeking another dialogue saying that the front is interested in discussing constitutional and legal affairs relating to the upcoming parliamentary election.
In the letter, Dr Kamal Hossain, an eminent jurist, thanked Sheikh Hasina for holding a dialogue with Oikyafront and requested to arrange another dialogue as soon as possible because the discussions at their first meeting remained incomplete.
“So, we are eager to sit for another dialogue to complete the discussion urgently,” the letter said, suggesting small-group discussion over the next general election, scheduled to be held by January 28, 2019.
Jatiya Oikyafront delivered the letter to the Awami League President’s political office in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, on Sunday.
The front delegation comprised Gono Forum’s Joint-General Secretary AHM Shafiq Ullah, Presidium Member Zoglul Haider Afrik, and Organizing Secretary Mostuq Ahmed.
AL Office Assistants Masudur Rahman and Mohammad Alauddin received the letter on behalf of Sheikh Hasina around 12:00pm.
The letter was sent a day after the front sent another letter to the Election Commission not to announce the schedule for the 11th parliamentary election until the ongoing dialogue between ruling and opposition parties and alliances ends.
Earlier on November 1, a 20-member delegation of the Jatiya Oikyafront led by Dr Kamal Hossain, held a dialogue with Awami League-led 14-party alliance at Gonobhaban.
Sheikh Hasina led a 23-member delegation at the talks.
“During the talks, the seven-point demand of the Oikyafront was discussed,’ Dr Kamal Hossain said in the letter.
“We earnestly thank you for taking the initiative for holding the talks. Although the talks went on for a longtime, our discussion remained incomplete,” he added.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said the dialogue may happen but he insisted that the dialogue should be held before November 7.
‘If the Oikyafront leaders want to sit again for dialogue, they would try for that as the door for discussion is open,” he told reporters at the secretariat on Sunday.
He added, “We want to hold the next dialogue before November 7.”
The November 1 dialogue between Sheikh Hasina and Oikyafront leaders hardly yielded any outcome as the BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters that they were ‘not much satisfied’ over the dialogue.
Later, Dr Kamal Hossain at a press conference said that they found no solution to the political deadlock.
In the dialogue, the front placed seven-point demand, including resignation of the government, formation of a non-party neutral government, dissolution of the parliament and reconstitution of the Election Commission before the next general election.
Sheikh Hasina on Saturday criticised the BNP and the Jatiya Oikyafront leaders for announcing programmes for movement at a time when a dialogue was taking place about the national election.
“When dialogue is going on, I see they’re announcing programmes for movement. They’re holding the dialogue on one hand and declaring programmes for the movement on the other. We don’t understand what type of a dialogue is this,’ she said while addressing a discussion on Saturday organised by Awami League at Krishibid Institution Bangladesh marking the Jail Killing Day.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Sunday said that they would not go for movement if the current political crisis is resolved through Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s talks with Oikyafront based on its seven-point demand.
“Make the talks fruitful, then the opposition parties will not walk towards the movement,” Rizvi said at a press conference at the BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.
