The main objective of this process is to verify and be updated about the current status of presidents, secretaries or convenors on the committees who will attend the council as councillors. These councillors will play a crucial role in bringing changes in the constitution of the party, said sources.

Meanwhile, Ashraf Hossain, joint secretary general of BNP, yesterday told journalists at Mannan Bhuiyan's Gulshan residence that the party chairperson herself had endorsed corrupt people in the party.

Criticising Khaleda Zia for countless blunders when the party was in power, he strongly protested Khaleda's remarks made during a teleconference with expatriate Bangladeshis in Australia on Saturday night.

During the phone conversation with the expatriates, the BNP chairperson said the ones speaking of reforms are corrupt and they do not have any commitment to the party. She also said that it was a mistake to elect Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan as the secretary general of the party.

Rebutting Khaleda Zia's allegation, Ashraf said she is the one who introduced corrupt individuals in the party -- the ones in jail now. She made some of them ministers even though they did not even have primary membership of the party.

"She gave supreme authority to some people who were nothing in the party" and they were involved in corruption and irregularities using the name of the party, Ashraf said adding that they destroyed the image of the party as well as of the country.

Ashraf, a close aide to Mannan Bhuiyan, also rejected Khaleda's allegation against Mannan Bhuiyan and said that Bhuiyan is by far the best among all secretary-generals of the party and he helped the party achieve two-thirds majority in parliament during his term.

Mannan Bhuiyan cannot be held responsible for corruption charges against ministers and lawmakers from the party because "He was secretary general of the party.... not of the government," Ashraf argued.

Meanwhile, Monir Hossain, former president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) Dhaka University unit, led a group of leaders to meet Mannan Bhuiyan at his residence. They congratulated him on his announcing the reform proposal with a view to introducing democracy in the party.

Among others, vice president of BNP Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, former state minister Rezaul Karim, former lawmaker Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul met Bhuiyan to discuss latest developments toward reforms.