[ALOCHONA] AL: Zillur Rahman latest statements

Zillur hails army chief’s statement
Terms idea of expanded interim govt unwise
Courtesy New Age 18/10/07

 

The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, on Wednesday hailed army chief General Moeen U Ahmed’s statement that he had no intention to assume the presidency but termed unwise the idea of an expanded interim government.

‘I think it will not be wise to expand the government for the remaining period of time before the polls,’ Zillur told reporters in reply to a query at his Gulshan residence. The Awami League leader welcomed the army chief’s statement made in London on Tuesday that he had no desire to be the country’s president.

‘What he [Moeen] has said is becoming of an army chief,’ Zillur said. ‘I have no desire to assume the presidency,’ Moeen told reporters at the Bangladesh high commission in London on his way to the United States.

‘He [army chief] is working for bringing about reforms with a commitment to hold general elections before the end of 2008,’ the AL leader said adding that his party believed the polls would be held as per the roadmap announced by the Election Commission.

Zillur said that it would not be wise to expand the government by appointing consultants for a brief period of time.

Moeen said that appointment of consultants was being considered to make the caretaker government more dynamic and the constitutional provisions were being examined in this regard.

Zillur criticised the authorities for not granting bail to the AL president, Sheikh Hasina before Eid. ‘It was unjust that Hasina was not granted bail before Eid,’ he said. ‘If Hasina had been granted bail, there was no chance that she would have gone into hiding…’

He said that if the AL president had any such intention, she would not have returned to the country from the United States.

Terming illegal the detention of the leaders of the Awami League and Chhatra League without any specific charges, the acting AL president demanded that the government should release those against whom no charges could be framed till date.

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