Giving an ultimatum to Khaleda Zia to invite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a dialogue by June 5, BNP leader Nazmul Huda yesterday threatened to quit the party if the ultimatum is not met.
“Confrontational politics cannot continue for ever. Everyone in and outside the country wants a dialogue. So I am urging my leader Khaleda Zia to take the initiative, though it was prime minister's responsibility,” he told a press conference at Jatiya Press Club.
The prime minister has no qualms about the country's future and so it does not matter whether she (PM) takes the initiative for dialogue or not, he added.
Huda, the maverick leader of the main opposition BNP, said he made the call publicly as it was not possible to raise the issue at the party forum. “That's why I took the risk and came here [press conference].”
The former BNP minister hoped the premier will sit down in the dialogue responding to Khaleda's invitation positively if she makes the call.
When his attention was drawn to the fact that Khaleda at a hunger strike programme on May 20 already urged the ruling Awami League to hold a dialogue on caretaker government issue, he said dialogue cannot be held with an attitude of war. “Problems should be brought to the dialogue table and solutions will come from there.”
Asked about facing another probable expulsion from his party for his latest stance, he questioned, “How many times they would expel me?”
Huda however said he will seek nomination from BNP to contest the next parliamentary polls, even if it expels him.
He was expelled from BNP on November 21, 2010, for violating party discipline. At that time, he was a vice-chairman of the party and also the president of its Dhaka district unit.
The BNP standing committee on April 6 last year restored his primary membership, but he was not retained in other party posts.