The BNP has said the bilateral trade deal with India during the rule of late president Ziaur Rahman was not a new treaty but renewal of the 1972 agreement.
The main opposition in parliament has also expressed its support for multilateral regional transit facilities under the Saarc rather than a bilateral transit treaty with India.
Dismissing the commerce minister's claim that the bilateral trade agreement was executed during Zia's rule, BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain yesterday said, "No new trade deal was executed during Zia's rule. It was only renewal of the 1972 agreement, article 5 of which was never implemented as it concerned the much-debated transit issue."
The trade agreement was first signed during the post-independence government of Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 28, 1972, he said.
Addressing a press conference at the party's Gulshan office, he said, "All countries of South and Central Asia, China, Myanmar and Iran will be benefited economically if multilateral regional transit facilities are expanded under the Saarc instead of a bilateral transit treaty with India."
Delwar said the BNP is in favour of extending all kinds of multilateral agreements to increase trade and investment facilities and international communications.
He said if the decision to give India 250 mile corridor in the name of transit is taken without discussion, review and proper scrutiny of security related issues, it would be suicidal and put the country's sovereignty at stake, hamper its economy and create political crises.
Delwar said an atmosphere for discussion on this critical issue could be created after establishing confidence by resolving issues of movement in enclaves, demarcation of maritime boundary, distribution of the Ganges water, growing incidents of killing of Bangladeshis by Indian Border Security Force, and unilateral construction of barbed wire fence along the common border.
He said the bilateral agreement with India the government is going to sign will also cause many socio-political problems.
"If the corridor is given to India, Bangladesh products will lose market in India and the existing trade deficit will widen further," Delwar added.
"The Awami League government wanted to give India the corridor in the same way during its 1996-2001 tenure but could not implement it because of public resistance," he said.
Delwar said the government's allegation that the BNP government gave India transit facilities under Sapta in 1993 is not true. "Sapta is a multidimensional cooperation treaty, a component of the Saarc. The corridor pact under the guise of transit is out-and-out a bilateral issue," he said.
The BNP secretary general alleged that the present government has taken the initiative to give corridor to India in the name of transit through more than one road route across Bangladesh.