BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today said there is no alternative to consolidate the anti-fascist national unity and urged the interim government to uphold the highest level of impartiality so that no quarter can gain undue political privileges.

At a press conference at the BNP chairperson's political office in Gulshan this morning, BNP secretary general said the democratic character of the state, the ownership of the people is reflected through the elected parliament and parliament members. But after reviewing the recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission and the Electoral Reform Commission, it seems to be important to the interim government that the politicians have no importance to them, rather they’re devoted to some political opportunists and want to create space for them.

The BNP secretary general strongly condemned the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, urging the international community to take immediate steps to stop the war.

In his written statement Mirza Fakhrul said, the people of Bangladesh were freed from fascism through a massive uprising in July and August 2024. The mass uprising was a continuation of the anti-fascist movement for 16 years, he said.  

The mass uprising was aspired for equality, human dignity and social justice and establish a powerful democratic system having no discrimination, he said.

Fakhrul said, elected parliament is the only appropriate forum for constitutional reform and giving the reform proposals a legal foundation.

Terming the national unity as the main driving force of the country Mirza Fakhrul said there is no alternative to national unity to move forward the country. 

He said national unity should be our political culture as cannot afford to take any action which would destroy our unity or divide our unity. 

Fakhrul Islam said the interim government must maintain maximum neutrality to keep the national unity intact. They should not have any agenda to help any particular quarter to gain political benefit. 

BNP secretary general said the ultimate objective of the reforms was to safeguarding the country's independence and sovereignty. So, there was no scope to create controversy over reform and elections- which should be done first. 

Since reform is an ongoing process, BNP secretary general said, both reform and election process can continue at the same time. Political parties may come to a consensus and make a charter which could be implemented later.

In the current circumstances, the foremost task of the interim government is to arrange a free and neutral national election without delay only after completing the urgent reforms and handover the power to an elected government, he said. 

Fakhrul Islm said, the elected government will accomplish the desired reforms in line with the public interests. Acceptable reform is only possible by an elected government which is accountable to the people. 

A number of advisers of the interim government are directly and indirectly involved with the process of formation of a new political party, which made the people suspicious about their intention, he said. 

People have already noticed some moves of the administration to support the political party, which will not be beneficial for the country and its democracy, BNP secretary general said.

Fakhrul Islam criticized the initiative of the National Consensus Commission for placing the points of reforms to the political parties on a spreadsheet with the provision of marking only ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The spreadsheet contains only 70 proposals for Constitutional Reforms while the Reform Commission mentioned as many as 123 reform proposals in its report, the BNP leader said.

Similarly, the Election Reform Commission has made 150 proposals, but only 27 proposals were mentioned in the spreadsheet, Fakhrul added. 

Placing the reforms proposals on a spreadsheet instead of placing those in the form of proposals would create confusion among people, he noted saying the spreadsheet has been prepared similar to the speeches delivered by a number of members of the Reform Commission and some particular political parties as before.

In this process, various signs and proofs of using the government machinery were reflected, which is not pleasant for the country and democracy, he said.

Fhakrul Islam said, it was also found in the proposals that the Reform Commission is unnecessarily out to open gate for appointing unelected people in the top executive positions of the country which is completely unexpected. 

Highlighting the Reform Commission proposals to create many new commissions, Fakhrul Islam said after reviewing the power and areas of work of the proposed commission it was found that all those proposals were aimed at making the country’s legislative and executive powerless and establish a weak and ineffective government