BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, 'Now I repeat, create an environment for elections very quickly. Clean up the mess. The responsibility has been given to you. We are always cooperating, you also cooperate. Step by step we are inciting, wanting to go to power, don't try to sway people's minds by saying all these things. The more you delay, the more Hasinas will come back.'
He said these things in a discussion meeting on the occasion of the fifth death anniversary of the former mayor of Dhaka City, Sadek Hossain Khokar, at the Engineers Institute in the capital on Sunday afternoon.
In the speech of the chief guest at the meeting, Mirza Fakhrul advised the interim government to hand over power to the elected government without delay through an acceptable election and said, 'To be clear, don't try to do anything by excluding BNP again. People of Bangladesh will never accept this. Once depoliticization was attempted minus two. Never mind going down that road again.'
Addressing the chief advisor of the interim government, he said, 'This interim government is being led by a distinguished person. He is Dr. Mr. Yunus (Muhammad Yunus). We respect him very much, you have a great reputation. Protecting that reputation is now your biggest job. The responsibility that has fallen on you is the responsibility – you will return democracy to Bangladesh. In other words, power should be given to the elected government through an election acceptable to all. I don't talk about power, I say responsibility.'
Criticizing the statement of the energy advisor, Fakhrul said, 'I will not name names. Politicians are vying for power, an adviser said today (Sunday). This is very unfortunate. We didn't expect a man of this size to say such things. We politicians do not aspire to power. We have worked to make Bangladesh free of Hasina. I gave my life, I gave my life. We are fighting to establish democracy.'
BNP Secretary General said, 'We want to go to power. That's what political parties are for. I will be elected, I will go to power. That is why we are doing politics.'
BNP Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, BNP Chairperson's Advisor Abdus Salam and International Committee member and Sadek Hossain Khoka's son Ishraq Hossain among others spoke at the meeting.
The meeting was presided over by Dhaka Metropolitan South BNP convener Rafiqul Alam Majnu and moderated by member secretary Tanveer Ahmed Robin.
