Announce nat'l polls schedule
Awami League (AL) leaders yesterday called on the government to announce the national election schedule as per electoral roadmap immediately.
“The country is passing through a crucial time and the government should announce the national election schedule in accordance with the electoral roadmap immediately,” said AL Presidium Member Tofail Ahmed at a discussion at the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh in the city.
The discussion was organised by Education and Human Resources Development Sub-Committee of the AL to mark the Historic Education Day.
The Day is observed to commemorate September 17 of 1962 when Mostofa Babul, Wazirullah and some other students and people were killed in police firing as they were protesting against the Hamidur Rahman Shikkha (Education) Commission. Since then the AL and other organisations have been observing the day.
Tofail said there is no alternative to holding a free, fair and acceptable election before the people and the government will have to withdraw the state of emergency and hold talks with all political parties before holding the election.
It is beyond imagination what will happen to the country if the election is not held in due time, he warned.
“We earned nothing in the last 20 months as the government did such things which it was not supposed to do and put everything on the verge of destruction,” Tofail said.
He hoped that ending all speculations the government will hand over power to an elected government soon.
Another AL Presidium Member Amir Hossain Amu said national election will have to be held first and the plan for all other elections before the national election should be cancelled so that the national election can be held without any disruption.
“Only a political government can set people free from the current situation as we have witnessed what the so-called civil society government did for us,” he said, adding, the government should immediately announce national election schedule to save the countrymen.
He said people from all strata waged a movement in protest against the Hamidur Rahman Shikkha Commission which was anti-people, communal and undemocratic.
The movement eventually turned into anti-Ayub movement and culminated in the emergence of independent Bangladesh, he added.
AL leader Suranjit Sengupta said no educational institution was spared from the politicisation of the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
“In the same way the judiciary was also politicised in the past five years in such a way that the nation will not get justice in the next 25 years,” he said.
“We shall have to wage vigorous movement to save the country from further destruction,” he added.
Presided over by Prof Abdul Halim, co-chairman of Education and Human Resources Development Sub-Committee, the discussion was also addressed by AL leader Motia Chowdhury, Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, former president of Dhaka University Teachers' Association, Prof Harun-ar-Rashid, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Dhaka University, and Prof Dr M Akteruzzaman.
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