AL won't accept upazila polls first: Hasina
Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday said her party will never accept elections to upazila parishad ahead of the general election.
She however vowed to hold local-government polls in six months if her party were voted to power in the next elections.
She was speaking at a view-exchange meeting with the AL's US chapter leaders in New York City, according to US-based news agency News World.
The AL chief again called on the interim government to hand over power to an elected government through holding the national elections first, saying the present crises will not otherwise go away.
Laying out the plan of a future Awami League government, she said they will raise literacy to 80-90 percent, provide free education for all up to honours level, ensure food surplus in the country by 2012, provide health and housing for all by 2013 and produce 10,000MW electricity by 2014.
Hasina said they will modernise madrasa education so that militancy do not spawn out of it.
On whether she would hold the proposed meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, she said the AL has already issued a statement in this regard.
She said they had supported the interim government against the backdrop of widespread corruption, lootings and killings by the BNP-Jamaat regime, but the government only made things worse.
"People were tortured into making statements. It's a crime against humanity," she said.
Stating that she will return home soon, Hasina said, "I don't know what awaits my fate, but I'll continue speaking out the truth."
Although the government once carried out anti-corruption drives, they are now busy making the corrupt clean, she said.
New York unit AL organised the meeting at Crown Plaza Hotel auditorium in Queens borough. Hasina's son Sajib Wazed Joy was present at the time.
Comments