Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said there is no alternative to poll-time neutral government as per the country’s political culture.
“As per the country’s political culture, there has to be a poll-time neutral government. There is no alternative to it,” he said this while addressing a discussion at the National Press Club in the city. Mirza Fakhrul said this in responding to the remarks made by ruling Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday. Quader had said that the poll-time interim government would be small size cabinet of the incumbent government to be led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The programme was jointly organised by a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) to mark June 16 as ‘black day’ for the newspapers.
The BNP leader said parliament has to be dissolved and the party’s jailed chairperson Khaleda Zia will have to be released before the election.
He also criticised the AL general secretary’s remark that it would be no problem if BNP does not come to election as other parties would participate in it.
“As a democratic political party, the BNP wants to participate in the national polls. But the polls must to be a neutral one. On the other hand, the ruling AL wants an election without BNP. They want an election with other parties,” Mirza Fakhrul said.
He said, journalists became fruits vendors in the city streets when the government closed all newspapers except four dailies and a news agency on June 16, 1975.
BFUJ President Ruhul Amin Gazi presided over the programme. Journalist leaders Shawkat Mahmud, Mahmudur Rahman, Syed Abdal Ahmed and Quader Goni Chowdhury, among others, spoke on the occasion.
