BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said, “If the government wants to avoid conflict and move forward, then the first thing it needs to do is to meet the demands of the opposition parties. In other words, it has to resign, paving the way for talks.”

He made the remarks at a press briefing at BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka after a meeting with the liaison committee of ‘Jatiyatabadi Samamona Jote.’

Fakhrul said, “We joined 2018 election keeping trust in the promises of the government. You have seen what happened.”

He further said their party has long been urging the government to step down and take steps for talks on the polls-time caretaker government to ensure a credible national election in the country.

Replying to a question, Fakhrul said their party will not engage in any dialogue with the government until it announces to quit power. “There is no question of believing them (govt). First, they have to announce to resign and then take steps for a dialogue.”

When attention was drawn to President Abdul Hamid’s speech in the parliament marking the 50th anniversary of the national legislature, Mirza Fakhrul said, “We respect the President. But constitutionally he does not have much power. We went to the President and gave him some specific proposals to form the Election Commission. But unfortunately he could not implement any of our proposals.”

The BNP secretary general said they think that the President read out the speech written by the government.

Mirza Fakhrul said, “However, I say that there’s one thing that I like personally as he said the development without democracy is not universal. That’s good. Another thing he said is that democracy can never be practiced through conflict and vengeance. These words are good.”

The BNP secretary general said this current parliament is completely dysfunctional. “This parliament is not acceptable to the people. It is not an elected but unelected parliament.”