Representational image
Representational image
Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s BNP on Friday questioned the purview of Bangladesh’s interim government on “reforms” as the newly formed student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) claimed some groups were attempting to bypass the issue for immediate elections.
“Sorry, this (reform) is not your job,” mass circulation Prothom Alo newspaper quoted Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) spokesman Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury as saying at a party event in the southeastern port city of Chattagram.
He alleged that the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus was echoing deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s rhetoric that deprived people of fair elections by promoting the narratives of development and the current government is following the same path in the name of reforms.
"The only way to ensure the people's freedom is through a fair election, but under the guise of reforms, the process is being prolonged," said Chowdhury. BNP is currently the major party in Bangladesh’s political arena following the ouster of Hasina’s Awami League government. Most of the Awami League's leaders and ministers are either in jail, on the run or left for abroad soon after August 5, 2024, when the government fell. Hasina has been living in India since then.
Chowdhury’s comments came as NCP convenor Nahid Islam, who until recently was an adviser of Yunus’ administration, on Friday said there was “no guarantee” that the future elected government would continue the reform process.
In an oblique reference to BNP, other parties, political activists and analysts, he said, “Many quarters want to head towards elections bypassing the reform agenda”.
“We think if we opt for election before the July (2024) uprising trial (of the leaders of the past regime), there is no assurance that the government which will assume power will carry on the reform process,” Islam said in an identical NCP rally in northwestern Sirajganj.
The NCP leader said, “We want the reforms and trials in the quickest possible time within the existing legal framework”.
BNP and several other parties and political analysts said an interim government could only suggest reforms and such an unelected government should not continue for long. They maintain that the acceptance and implementation of its suggestions depends entirely on the future elected government and parliament.
Yunus, who assumed the post as the Chief Adviser of his own government, formed several reform commissions on the constitution and other matters but their reports are yet to be finalised.
The NCP emerged as a political party with a group of leaders of the now defunct Students against Discrimination (SAD) that led the violent uprising which eventually toppled the Hasina regime and Yunus was installed as the interim government head as their nominee.
Earlier, Yunus welcomed the NCP and after initial reluctance to discuss an election deadline, recently stated that if political parties agree on minimal reforms, polls could be held by December this year. But, he said if the parties want a greater reform the election could be held by June next year.
Several political analysts speculate the NCP is trying to buy time to set up its organisational structure nationwide for election participation.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.