Chief Adviser's views on lifting of emergency
The Chief Adviser thinks that the time is not ripe for a full lifting of the emergency. That statement will certainly leave politicians across the spectrum disappointed, for they have been demanding an end to the emergency in the run-up to the promised elections in December this year. That said, the CA's remarks in Sylhet on Monday throw fresh new light on the political situation obtaining in the country and what the caretaker government plans on doing about it. A significant point Fakhruddin Ahmed has made relates to the need for a consensus in the on-going dialogue between the government and the political parties. He believes, and so do a whole range of others in the country, that the politics of the future must be based on an agreement by all to make Parliament effective and to consign hartals to history.
The point is well made, but for such a consensus to be reached requires some serious transfusion of blood into the dialogue process. The feeling has grown that of late the dialogue has taken a backseat to more tangible realities, such as the matter of the release or projected release of some individuals. Besides, while parties like the Awami League have engaged in talks with the government, others such as the BNP have been looking for a quid pro quo in the form of the freedom of its detained chairperson and her sons, one of whom has already flown abroad on bail for treatment. The expectation (and it has been raised to certain levels by the pronouncements of government figures) is that Begum Zia's release is imminent and that in itself is a hint of the BNP soon agreeing to join the dialogue. The CA has noted that the government is in no mood to be partial any political party because it is not a rival to any one. That only argues the case for a revitalised dialogue process before the general elections eventually take place. The priorities before the country say it all; and those priorities, as an adviser put it recently, will involve a spirit of give-and-take on the part of both the administration and the parties. Lifting of emergency, an end to the hartal culture, a functional parliament, selection of individuals of manifest probity as parliamentary candidates, et cetera, are some of the issues that the dialogue can handle effectively.
It is our hope, given the realities, that the dialogue initiated with the parties by the government will throw up some much needed ideas on how we mean to govern ourselves from here on.
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