People want Khaleda back to govern as PM, says Fakhrul

The people of Bangladesh want to see BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia as their prime minister again, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said.

After inaugurating the party’s campaign to sign up members on Sunday, the leader made the remark.

He hoped that the people would respond to the calls of BNP activists positively.

“The people are in misery because of this government. They would like to see Khaleda Zia as their prime minister at a time like this.”

He asked BNP activists to share the party’s ideologies with the people.

The party boycotted the general elections held in 2014 when its demand for an interim caretaker government was not met by the Awami League. It now demands a ‘facilitating government’ for the next polls due in 2019.

“We have said time and again that we will contest in the election only if it’s held under a neutral government and a neutral Election Commission,” said Fakhrul.

The ruling Awami League, on the other hand, says its President Sheikh Hasina will hold the position of prime minister during the election no matter what.

Mirza Fakhrul slated the ruling party chief for “confusing the people about the amendment to the constitution.”

“They blame Ziaur Rahman (founder of BNP) for destroying the constitution in 1972 but in reality, your father (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) was the one who had done it through the fourth amendment.”

“We are not to be fooled,” he said.

The government leaders fear those elected by the people as they are the ones who are unelected, he added, referring to the sacking of BNP leader MA Mannan as Gazipur City Corporation Mayor three times.

The BNP stalwart came down hard on the government for rejecting the latest report of Human Rights Watch or HRW criticising “enforced disappearance” and “secret detention” of people in Bangladesh.

“Is it an offence to speak the truth?” he said, quoting the HRW.

About the “abduction” of right-wing columnist, poet Farhad Mazhar,  Fakhrul said: “He is an outspoken scholar and a patriot. We may not agree with all his opinions but we respect him.”