Bangladesh News

With the chief adviser reluctant to hold regular meetings of the advisory council, the advisers to the caretaker government meet informally for coordinating their activities themselves.

Nine advisers gathered at the office of Information Adviser Mahbubul Alam over lunch yesterday while five advisers held a similar meeting at Adviser Sultana Kamal’s chamber on Monday.

The previous caretaker governments, however, would hold regular meetings and the advisers discussed with the chief adviser every latest development in the routine work as well as the preparatory work for holding the election.

At yesterday’s meeting, the advisers discussed the existing political impasse and government measures for a free and fair poll once the crisis is resolved, sources said.

“We are discussing various issues with each other at different times so that we can perform our duties properly as described in the constitution,” Adviser CM Shafi Sami told reporters before joining the lunch.

The advisers, however, declined to call their having lunch together a “meeting”. “We gathered to take lunch only and Mahbubul Alam was today’s host,” Finance and Planning Adviser M Akbar Ali Khan said.

Adviser Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury did not attend the lunch as he was at a scheduled programme outside the secretariat, his personal staff said.

Earlier on Sunday, Shafi Sami hosted a lunch for his cabinet colleagues.

After assuming office, all the advisers met at a lunch meeting at the state guesthouse Padma.

BNP Chairperson and immediate past prime minister Khaleda Zia bitterly criticised the meeting, terming it “a conspiracy” as the chief adviser was not present there.

But Akbar Ali Khan told reporters that they had met only for taking lunch.