United News of Bangladesh

Chief Coordinator of the 12-Party alliance and Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar) Chairman Mustafa Jamal Haider on Sunday urged the National Consensus Commission to reach a consensus over minimum reform proposals without unnecessary delay. “We are not willing to waste time day after day. We should quickly reach a minimum level of consensus. If some issues remain incomplete or disputed, we can reform them in the course of time,” he said. He made the remarks while taking part in a dialogue with the National Consensus Commission at the LD Hall of the Jatiya Sangsad Complex. An 11-member delegation from the alliance, led by him, took part in the dialogue presided over by Consensus Commission Vice Chairman Prof Ali Riaz. BNP gears up to welcome Khaleda as she’s returning from London Mustafa Jamal Haider said having differences and disagreements among political parties are quite natural. “This is the beauty and strength of democracy. Still, we must reach a consensus on minimum reforms so that no scope is left for authoritarian rule to reemerge.” He said the actual goal should be to ensure that no new powerful person or Chief Justice in the future can manipulate the constitution to impose autocracy by exploiting loopholes in the existing state structure. He stressed the urgency of entrusting state power to elected public representatives to fulfill the democratic aspirations of the nation. Mustafa Jamal Haider, however, said the Commission is making efforts to address long-standing structural inconsistencies and problems accumulated over the decades. Consensus Commission members Safar Raj Hossain, Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar and Dr Mohammad Ayub Miah were present at the discussion, moderated by Chief Adviser’s Special Assistant Monir Haider. The 12-party alliance has expressed agreement with 111 out of the 166 reform proposals placed by the National Consensus Commission, disagreed with 48 and refrained from giving opinions on seven proposals. On March 20 last, the Consensus Commission opened a series of talks with political parties to forge a national consensus on state reform initiatives undertaken by the interim government. The commission has already held talks with 23 political parties, including BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party (NCP).  

A new political alliance of a dozen parties has been unveiled to join the BNP-planned simultaneous anti-government movement aimed at unseating the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, organisers said on Thursday. Previously these 12 parties were part of a 20-party alliance led by BNP. Mostafa Jamal Haidar, Chairman of a faction of Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar), announced the formation of the new alliance at a press briefing at the Jatiya Press Club on Thursday. Read more: BNP MP Harunur Rashid submits resignation to JS Speaker The partners of the new alliance are Jatiya Party (Kazi Zafar), Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Bangladesh Labour Party, Bangladesh Jatiya Dal, NDP, LDP (Selim), Muslim League, Jamiyet Ulamaye Islam, Islami Oikkya Jote, Jagpa, Islamic Party and Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal. “I can firmly say that our understanding and unity with the biggest opposition party of the country BNP will remain the same as before. We are moving forward with the new tactics to build greater unity with participation of those political parties, which are against this fascist government,” he said. “There is no scope of misunderstanding and we all move together on the path of simultaneous movement,” said Mostafa. Read more: Samyabadi Dal (ML) welcomes BNP’s 27-point campaign Labour Party chairman Mostafizur Rahman read out the declaration paper of the newly formed 12-party alliance. “We have decided to participate in the ongoing anti-government movement to restore democracy and people’s voting rights, and we will be recognised as a 12-party alliance,” said Mostafizur. “The 12-party alliance will remain active on streets in simultaneous anti-government movement with BNP to force the government to resign and hold the election under a caretaker government through a new Election Commission. We’ll continue our movement until the achievement of final victory,” he said. The 12-party alliance also considers the BNP’s 27-point outline of ‘Structural Reform of the State’ as a ‘national charter of emancipation’ and expressed solidarity with it, he added. Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, chairman of Kallyan Party, said, “Before abolition, the 20-party alliance held its last meeting at the BNP Chairperson’s Office on December 9, 2022 where the leaders of the alliance decided not to use the previous name 20-party alliance. The 20-party alliance formed on April 18, 2012.” There are two registered political parties in the 12-party alliance—one is Bangladesh Kallyan Party and another is Bangladesh Muslim League, he added. The other parties have filed their petitions to the Election Commission for registration and it is expected that a positive result will come, said Ibrahim. The alliance is planning to go to the divisional cities after December 30 and they will take their decision about it soon, Ibrahim said. “We will join all programmes of BNP and as part of the simultaneous movement we will bring out mass processions on December 30. We will gather at the Bijoy Nagar area around 2 pm,” he added.