Bangladesh News

A section of BNP leaders are making moves to change the president, who holds the defence portfolio during the tenure of the caretaker government with the authority of transferring and promoting the armed forces personnel.

Losing confidence in President Iajuddin Ahmed, BNP is lobbying for a new face in the presidency believing that a change might help it in the upcoming election.

Iajuddin’s last speech on Thursday night frustrated the BNP leaders and now they want someone ‘more loyal’ to them in the presidency, sources said.

The leaders who want to change the president believe that the speaker of the last parliament might act more favourably to BNP if made the acting president following resignation of Iajuddin.

The BNP leaders already sent a massage to the president expressing their desire. A senior official of Bangabhaban met Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, who is supposed to act as the president in absence of Iajuddin, sources said.

A BNP delegation led by Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, parliamentary affairs adviser to the immediate past prime minister, yesterday held a three-hour long meeting with the Speaker in his office in the parliament complex.

They left the speaker’s office hurriedly without saying anything to the media about the meeting. Asked by The Daily Star, former whip Rezaul Bari Deena said, “The meeting did not discuss what you think it discussed.” He left the office without giving any scope for asking further questions.

Afterwards, the speaker met Deputy Speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui at his office. According to the constitution, if the speaker assumes the office of the President, Akhtar will become the acting speaker.

Issues regarding the president’s resignation dominated the discussions and there was a significant amount of pressure on President Iajuddin to resign, sources said.

Another section of BNP leaders do not support the move arguing that it would make it evident that BNP has plans to manipulate the upcoming election, sources said.

If Iajuddin resigns from the presidency, Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar will act as the president in accordance with the constitution until a new president is elected following formation of the next parliament through the general election.

As the acting president, he will hold the defence portfolio and he will preside over any change in the armed forces as the armed forces will be under his jurisdiction during the tenure of the caretaker government, which is authorised to bring changes in the civil administration only.

Since the resignation of Iajuddin from the post of chief adviser, some important changes took place in the armed forces, which is now deployed to maintain law and order for holding a free and fair election.

The Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR) however yesterday said the changes that were made in the armed forces were part of a routine work.

The speaker, who was elected by the immediate past ruling party BNP in the last parliament and who acted as the president on several occasions in absence of Iajuddin, has proven his loyalty to the party in running the last parliament.

Considering his loyalty, the BNP leadership had already made moves once before for bringing a change in the presidency and to elect Jamiruddin the new president. But at the time, they retreated from the plan as they were convinced that Iajuddin would remain loyal to them, sources said.

Now the move is on again and they are searching for ways to bring the change.

A senior official of Bangabhaban in the last couple of days met the speaker twice. But it could not be learnt what they discussed, sources added.

Jamiruddin returned to Dhaka from his electoral constituency Panchagarh on Sunday night. He arrived at his office at 1:50pm yesterday. The BNP delegation sat in a meeting with the speaker at about 4:00pm and the meeting continued for about five hours.

Meanwhile, Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Dr SMA Faiz met President Iajuddin Ahmed in Bangabhaban yesterday.

Dr Faiz told journalists that he went there because of his personal relation with Iajuddin.

Sources however said they also discussed the issue of Iajuddin’s resignation.

The same sources hinted that Iajuddin is not resigning anytime soon.