The BNP Standing Committee on Saturday night discussed holding the party’s next national council and expanding its political and organisational activities.

“We discussed how we can quickly move the party towards a council in the near future in order to further expand our political and organisational activities,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He made the remarks while talking to reporters after over a two-hour meeting of the party’s Standing Committee at the party chairman’s Gulshan office.

Fakhrul said the meeting also reviewed the 47-day programme taken by Prime Minister and BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman, and Standing Committee members shared their opinions and suggestions on various aspects of the initiatives.

He said their discussions mainly focused on strengthening and expanding the party’s organisational and political activities.

“We will try to move towards the council as quickly as possible, and we discussed this in detail,” he added.

Asked whether the party council will be held before Eid-ul-Azha, he replied in the negative, saying it would take at least a few months to prepare before fixing a date.

The party last held its sixth national council on March 19, 2016.

Replying to another question, he said the issue of nomination of party candidates for the parliament’s reserved seats for women did not come up for discussion at their meeting.

He said their chairman convened the meeting of the Standing Committee, the party’s highest policymaking body, to discuss how to keep the party active and continue its regular activities.

The meeting began at around 8:40pm with BNP Chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in the chair and ended around 11:50pm.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Salahuddin Ahmed, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and Prof AZM Zahid Hossain attended the meeting in person.

Nazrul Islam Khan and Selima Rahman joined the meeting virtually.

Another Standing Committee member, Mirza Abbas, is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore.

This was the first meeting of the BNP’s highest policymaking body since the party returned to power through the February 12 national election.

The last meeting of the Standing Committee was held on January 9 at the same venue.