Bangladesh News

Shop owners of the capital have declared to stop selling products to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Aziz and his family if he does not step down by Friday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners’ Association (DMSOA) made the unusual announcement at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday saying that their business is being hampered due to the political crisis centring Aziz.

The DMSOA leaders also said that they will arrange for special prayers in mosque after the next Juma prayers so that the Almighty makes the CEC see the point and resign from his post, if he does not stand aside by then.

“We would welcome if you [the CEC] resign and play a historic role like the former chief justice KM Hasan, otherwise we would have no option but to boycott you in every respect,” DMSOA President Md Helal Uddin said holding the CEC responsible for the current political impasse and consequent public sufferings.

Saying that the country’s economic health is deteriorating and their businesses are incurring loss due the CEC’s stubbornness, the desperate DMSOA leaders also urged MA Aziz’s wife to convince her husband to resign immediately in order to save the commoners from further sufferings.

Asked whether this move for not selling any products or services to a person violates human rights or not, he said, “Our move is rather symbolical so that the CEC feels the pulse of the common people.”

If he still continues as CEC, from November 18, the vegetable vendors, grocers, bread and biscuit manufacturers would stop selling any products to him, Helal said adding that even the restaurants and the tailors would stop providing their services to him or his family.

“If we find anybody else coming to us for his shopping, we would not offer our product or services to that person either,” he said. The business community would also cease inviting him to any social programmes, he added.

Md Helal Uddin read out a written statement at the press conference while Secretary General of Bread and Biscuit Manufacturers’ Association Iqbal Hossain Rana, President of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners’ Association Ruhul Amin Khondakar, President of Food and Vegetable Products Exporters’ Association Jahangir Hossain were present.