Govt wants to hold polls creating a vacuum in opposition leadership : BNP

Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders on Monday said the government wanted to hold another general election creating a leadership vacuum in the opposition.
The party leaders said people would not allow the government to fulfill that desire.
They came up with the statement while addressing a gathering at the auditorium of National Press Club jointly organised by Sutrapur, Kotwali, Bangsal, Wari and Gandaria thana units of Dhaka city BNP.
The gathering was organised to protest the government’s ‘conspiracy’ against  BNP vice-chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who was recently sentenced to 13 years jail for amassing wealth illegally and concealing information of his wealth.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan at the programme said the government wanted to hold an election making the opposition devoid of leadership and disqualifying popular leaders of the opposition to contest in elections.
He recalled that the government had staged the last election unilaterally keeping away most of the registered political parties from the election.
Nazrul said the government would not win if an inclusive, free and fair election takes place. ‘So it made sure that popular opposition leaders could not participate in the election,’ he said.
The conspiracy started with sentencing Sadeque Hossain Khoka, the former Dhaka city mayor and a heroic freedom fighter, to jail terms, he said.
He came down hard on the government for holding trial of Sadeque who is seriously ill, battling for life and was under treatment abroad.
Nazrul termed the allegations for which Sadeque was accused ‘baseless’ and ‘false’.
Speaking on the occasion, BNP vice-chairman Abdullah Al Noman said people would take to the street if the government did not hold a free and fair election.
He said when the government becomes weak, it resorts to the course of filing cases and arresting opposition leaders and activists.
Noman said the government’s weakness was exposed as it did not face its political opponent politically, rather through administrative action and law enforcers.
He termed the trial of Sadeque Hossain Khoka in absentia ‘unethical, inconsiderate and unlawful’, pointing out that Sadeque had gone abroad taking permission of the higher court.
BNP leaders Asaduzzaman Ripon, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal,  Habibur Rahman Habib,  Emran Saleh Prince, Kazi Abul Basar and Mohammad Mohon, among others, addressed the gathering presided over by Gandaria unit president Mokbul Islam Khan Tipu.

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