Bangladesh News

The main opposition BNP has planned to stage a series of protests against the government in and outside the parliament on various issues including signing of a number of treaties with India.

A number of senior BNP leaders said most of the party lawmakers want to join the parliament and stage a strong protest in the House against the treaties signed with India claiming those would not uphold the interest of the country. If deputies belonging to BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party join the parliament, they will demand holding a discussion on a number of issues including price hike of essentials, law and order situation and the treaties signed with India, party insiders said.

The party policymakers also planned to wage street agitation against the government, terming it a failure in running the country, BNP insiders said.

They said launching of the agitation would also help strengthen the party’s organisational capacity.

A BNP policymaker said they might join the parliament if everything goes according to plan after the BNPPP meeting likely to be held on Sunday.

“We are trying to wage a movement in and outside of parliament against the government’s activities,” BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also a member of party’s standing committee, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The BNP Parliamentary Party (BNPPP) was scheduled to sit yesterday to discuss if they should join the parliament. But the meeting was cancelled as the parliament’s sitting was adjourned till 3:00pm Thursday, BNP lawmakers claimed.

Staffs of Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia’s office in parliament yesterday morning communicated with BNP lawmakers and informed them that the meeting was postponed.

“The parliamentary party is likely to sit Sunday to discuss if party lawmakers should join the current session of parliament,” BNP lawmaker Moudud Ahmed, also a member of party’s standing committee, told The Daily Star.

Salauddin echoed the same view on the BNPPP meeting.

“Many lawmakers are now inclined to return to the parliament,” Mahbubuddin Khokon told The Daily Star yesterday.

The BNPPP has not held a meeting since February last year and the main opposition party has been boycotting the House since its second session in June. They have already boycotted 48 consecutive sittings out of 89 sittings of the ninth parliament.

Lawmakers from two components of the BNP-led four-party alliance, Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party, were also invited to join yesterday’s cancelled BNPPP meeting.

Contacted by The Daily Star yesterday, Andaleeve Rahman, lone lawmaker and chief of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, and Hamidur Rahman Azad, lawmaker of Jamaat, said they were told that they would be notified of the new date for the meeting later.