Sunday, October 26th, 2008Two major political parties Awami League (AL) and BNP are waiting to see the caretaker government implement the consensual agreements they reached at the last round of politico-electoral talks among the three.Insiders of both parties said they want the agreements to be implemented before the announcement of the detailed election schedule on November 2.Leaders of both parties said they especially want to hear specific decisions coming from the military backed government regarding the state of emergency, and about participation of their chiefs Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina in the election.Top leaders of BNP-led four-party alliance are likely to meet ...
(read more) Sunday, June 15th, 2008Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday said the caretaker government is working to enlist support of the country's two large political parties in its ongoing efforts to ensure a credible and meaningful general elections and a stable post-election situation."Like Awami League [AL], BNP is also a major political party with large populist support-base. That is why we are trying to include both the major parties [BNP and AL] into our efforts," he told reporters yesterday morning emerging from the inaugural ceremony of the first biennial conference of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), Chittagong chapter.Zillur said the government's prime objective is ...
(read more) Tuesday, May 20th, 2008Pro-Khaleda faction of BNP yesterday rejected the government letter inviting them to participate in the formal dialogue, saying it did not address party secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain properly.Meanwhile Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, acting secretary general of the pro-reform faction, accepted the government invitation for the talks Sunday night, though the letter made no mention of his designation.Rizvi Ahmed, acting office secretary of pro-Khaleda faction, said a Special Branch official carried the letter to Delwar's Nam apartment at about 9:30am.But Delwar regretted to accept the letter sent from the Chief Adviser's Office, as the authorities did not ...
(read more) Monday, May 19th, 2008Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former secretary general of BNP, yesterday urged the party workers to strengthen the party by uniting under the leadership of Khaleda Zia, forgetting all the past confusion and disputes."I hope the unification process would be completed any time as there is no alternative to unity," he told journalists at his Gulshan residence prior to heading out for the court to surrender. "…unity is now a matter of time," he added.Many leaders, activists and followers of Bhuiyan gathered at his residence since the morning and tears roll down their cheeks when he left the house at ...
(read more) Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Leaders of pro-Khaleda faction of BNP during an 'unofficial' talk with the government yesterday demanded release of their party Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina before the expected formal dialogues.They said release of the two major party chiefs is a must to make the dialogues fruitful and the upcoming election credible.During the talk with five advisers to the caretaker government at the state guesthouse Meghna last evening, Khaleda loyalists said their faction will not join the formal dialogues with their chief in jail.The BNP faction leaders asked the government to withdraw the state of ...
(read more) Tuesday, April 29th, 2008A special court yesterday sentenced former BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukdar Lalu to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for amassing over Tk 1.75 crore worth of wealth illegally and concealing wealth information to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).Judge Anowar Hossain of the Special Judge's Court, Bogra also handed down a three-year prison term to his wife Shamsun Nahar Zaman for the same offences.The court also fined the Lalu couple and ordered to confiscate their wealth.The couple was fined a total of Tk 11 lakh -- Lalu Tk 10 lakh and his wife Tk 1 lakh. In default of the fines, Lalu will ...
(read more) Monday, April 28th, 2008Saifur Rahman faction of BNP yesterday asked the Election Commission (EC) to curtail the wholesale authority of law enforcement agencies to arrest anybody without a warrant on the polling day, and suggested empowering only the officers engaged in parliamentary election duties with the authority.Saifur loyalists also demanded announcement of the schedule for the stalled ninth parliamentary election soon, withdrawal of the state of emergency, and release of detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia."Only the officers [of law enforcement agencies] should have the power, to prevent it from being misused," said detained BNP Chairperson's Adviser Mofazzal Karim, who placed a ...
(read more) Monday, April 28th, 2008The pro-Saifur faction of BNP could not break away from the tradition and hired hundreds of people to show off their strength as they sat with the Election Commission (EC) for the reforms dialogue yesterday.Most of these "supporters", who gathered on the road between the EC Secretariat and Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the presence of huge police force, were collected from different garment factories in Mirpur, Phulbaria and Sayedabad bus terminals, and Jatrabari kitchen market.However, there is a ban on such gathering and the police had filed a case under the Emergency Power Rules against the BNP faction loyal ...
(read more) Monday, April 28th, 2008Khaleda Zia-appointed BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday said the dialogue between the pro-Saifur faction and the Election Commission (EC) is part of a blueprint to exclude BNP from the election process."They [pro-Saifur faction] have been invited to the dialogue and they might even get the election symbol of sheaf of paddy but they will not be able to reach the people," Delwar told the press at his Nam flat."They will not be able to go to the constituencies with the election symbol as the people will give them a befitting reply," he said, adding that the Saifur-Hafiz group ...
(read more) Friday, March 21st, 2008Detained former premier and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia refused to become a voter as the government what she said detained her “illegally”.Emerging from the sub-jail yesterday, her lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan told reporters that Khaleda Zia said the government detained her illegally and so she wouldn't become a voter in protest.Jail authorities had gone to the sub-jail with voter registration forms twice for making her voter, but she refused to register.Another former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also detained in another sub-jail nearby, has become voter from Dhanmondi area.Ahmed Azam said the BNP chairperson is concerned over price ...
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