GOVT TALKS WITH PARTIES
IOJ for polls in October, barring atheists, apostates from polls
Courtesy New Age 11/6/08
An alliance of Islamist political parties has asked the government to hold the parliamentary elections by October and bar ‘atheists’ and ‘apostates’ (murtads) from contesting the polls scheduled to be held by December.
‘We have placed a 21-point charter of demands before the government that included introduction of Islamic laws in the country,’ the chairman of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote, Fazlul Haque Amini, told a joint news briefing on Tuesday after holding the dialogue with the government.
The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, led a five-member government delegation comprising his cabinet colleagues and Amini led an 11-member delegation of the Islami Oikya Jote to the dialogue that lasted for about an hour and a half at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
It was the tenth dialogue after a five-day break in a series after the military-controlled government had begun holding talks with political parties to forge a consensus for smooth transition to democracy by yearend.
The Islami Oikya Jote also demanded release of the detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia and a number of political leaders and scrapping of the ‘anti-Islamic’ provisions in the National Women Development Policy adopted by the interim government few months ago.
The alliance, comprising Islami Morcha
The alliance said the elections should be held in October. One of the biggest festivals of the Muslims, Eid-ul-Fitr, will fall in December when many Muslims may not be able to take part in the elections as many will be performing Hajj in
Asked about the government’s position on the alliance demands, the commerce and education adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, told reporters the government was taking note of every demand the parties were placing in the dialogue.
‘We will review the necessary inputs from the parties to forge a national consensus,’ said Zillur, who iterated his optimism once again for a fruitful completion of the talks with participation from all the parties, including two major parties — the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — which earlier rejected the government offer to join the dialogue unless their detained party chiefs — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia — are released unconditionally.
Zillur said the two parries were major political institutions and they felt a national consensus was needed. ‘The government is putting in efforts to draw the dialogue to a successful conclusion.’
Asked whether the efforts to send Sheikh Hasina abroad is part of the government’s covert campaign for the so-called ‘minus two formula’ (keeping Hasina and Khaleda Zia out of the political process), Zillur said, ‘It is for you to make the analysis.’
‘Our main task is to carry forward our efforts to implement the targets announced earlier,’ he said.
At the meeting, the Islami Oikya Jote, a component of the immediate past BNP-led ruling alliance, also asked the government to withdraw the state of emergency before the national elections and said there should be no local government elections before the national polls.
It also demanded withdrawal of restriction on political activities, reinstatement of rights to bail, effective measures to control essential goods price spiral, suspension of government decision that allowed foreign companies to extract oil and gas, scrapping the registration of certain non-governmental organisations working against Islamic sentiments, scrapping NGO status of the churches, cancellation of the gazette on the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, putting in religious identity in the national identity cards and no move for constitutional amendment.
The government is scheduled to sit with the Unity for Political Reforms this morning at the Chief Adviser’s Office.
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