Khaleda coming to National Executive Committee with ‘important message’ for people

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will come up with an ‘important message’ for the people in her meeting with the National Executive Committee of the party, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said.

She is meeting the over 500-strong committee at Le Meridian hotel in Dhaka at 10am on Saturday ahead of the verdict on corruption charges against her.

Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul, speaking to bdnews24.com on Friday, said, “The meeting of our National Executive Committee is taking place amidst an ongoing complex political situation in the election year. This meeting is very important.”

“Our leader will convey important message to the people of the country in the meeting,” he added.

The BNP leader said Khaleda would listen to the grassroots leaders of the party along with the central ones about their views on the current political situation and what the party should do ahead of the election.

The BNP sits out of parliament after the boycott of the 2014 general elections as its demand for a non-partisan polls-time government was not met. It is now staring at the possibility of their party chief being thrown behind bars.

The party has raised the same demand again, but the ruling Awami League is firm on its decision to keep Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the helm of the administration that will oversee the next election.

Khaleda will be ineligible to run in the next elections if she is convicted of embezzling Tk 21 million in a case related to Zia Orphanage Trust. The verdict on the case is due on Feb 8.

She faces maximum life imprisonment in the event of a guilty finding in the case and following ruling coalition leaders’ comments that Khaleda “had stolen orphans' money”, BNP leaders fear the verdict will not go in her favour.

Khaleda sat with the top policymaking body National Standing Committee after the court set the verdict date, but the party has not announced any programme over the verdict yet.

The party said it would decide its next move after taking the views of the grassroots leaders.

Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said they have distributed the ID cards among the members of the Executive Committee.

“We’ve completed all preparations,” he told bdnews24.com on Friday.

Besides the 502 members of the committee, presidents of the party’s district and metropolitan units, members of the Standing Committee and Chairperson’s Advisory Council will attend the meeting.

The committee is supposed to meet every three months in line with the party’s constitution, but this will be the first one since its formation four months after their sixth national council on Mar 19, 2016.

The opening session of the meeting will be broadcast live on Facebook, according to an official of Khaleda’s press wing.

Meanwhile, a number of BNP leaders, including some of the Executive Committee, have been arrested in cases over an attack on the police in Dhaka last Tuesday.

A group of BNP leaders and activists stormed a police prison van and snatched away two detained fellows near the High Court during a demonstration when Khaleda was returning home after attending the hearing on another graft case on that day.