The UN emissary's visit will be ‘fruitful’, hoped the party’s General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam while speaking to journalists after a one-and-half-hour-long meeting with him on Saturday.
“We discussed nothing specific. This was a preliminary discussion,” he said adding that there would be more meetings with Fernandez-Taranco during his four-day stay in Dhaka.
The UN envoy will also meet BNP leaders and those involved in organising and conducting the upcoming national elections.
Led by Syed Ashraf, Awami League’s Advisory Council members Tofail Ahmed, Amir Hossain Amu and Gowher Rizvi, Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif, International Affairs Secretary Faruk Khan and former diplomat Shahed Reza met Fernandez-Taranco at the Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon.
Before meeting the Awami League leaders, he had a 30-minute meeting with the US ambassador in Dhaka Dan Mozena at the hotel.
The UN Assistant Secretary General arrived in Dhaka on Friday evening, in what the UN said, to encourage political parties for a dialogue to hold the Jan 5 parliamentary elections.
Earlier on Saturday, he met with Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque.
Ministry officials said the UN envoy stressed on holding inclusive elections.
After meeting the Awami League leaders, Fernandez-Taranco went to Ganabhaban around 4pm to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He is also scheduled to meet Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia afterwards.
The two major political parties - Awami League and BNP - are at loggerheads over the form of the polls-time dispensation.
The ruling party installed an 'all-party' interim cabinet that the BNP rejected and stayed away demanding restoration of a non-party government to oversee the national polls.
Fernandez-Taranco had come to Dhaka in his first visit seven months earlier. He had pitched for an immediate dialogue among political parties to find a solution to the crisis and insisted home-grown solutions.
His second visit to “encourage dialogue” comes at a time when Bangladesh is witnessing an eruption of violence, particularly bomb and arson attacks during the programmes of the agitating Opposition.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Dhaka, Neal Walker, in a statement earlier said Fernandez-Taranco would “encourage dialogue and conditions conducive for parliamentary elections scheduled for 5 January 2014”.
During his earlier visit in May this year, the UN official handed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's letters to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia.
Political tension escalated with the approaching election.
More than 50 people died in violence during the Opposition backed blockade in the last two weeks. A similar 72-hour blockade has started from Saturday 6am.
Earlier, Ban Ki-Moon also personally spoken to the two top leaders but a solution remained elusive.
Ban recently wrote again to Hasina and Khaleda and expressed hope that two warring leaders would move towards ‘all-party’ general elections in January.
Fernandez-Taranco is scheduled to leave Dhaka on Dec 10.