Bangladesh largest opposition holds National Council

By Naim-Ul-Karim

DHAKA, March 19 (Xinhua) — Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia unveiled her future plans as her largest opposition party Saturday held its 6th National Council in the capital city of Dhaka.

She also reiterated her demand for an interim election under a non-party government.

About 3,000 councilors approved Khaleda Zia and her elder son Tarique Rahman as chairperson and senior vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist (BNP) respectively.

Two-time ex-PM Khaleda and her son, who has been living in London since September 2008 after he was forced into exile by the army-backed government, were elected unopposed on March 6 as nobody picked up nomination papers for the two key posts.

The other party positions are expected to be formally announced at the end of the council, being held three years behind the schedule and six years after the last one in 2009.

BNP was founded by General Ziaur Rahman on September 1, 1978 and led by his widow Khaleda Zia after his assassination in 1981.

Apart from thousands of Councillors, some 45,000 delegates and 16,000 local and foreign guests attended the council.

In her inaugural speech, Khaleda Zia unveiled her “Vision 2030”, outlining her party plans to make Bangladesh a higher-middle income state by the year 2030 with a 5,000 U.S. dollars per capita income target.

She said if elected next time her party will adopt new plan to work for a bicameral parliament when dignitaries of the country would be elected members in the upper chamber of the parliament.

“We’ll work for a balance in the power structure future as the power of the prime minister under the current system has reached the level exercised by an autocrat.”

BNP is not represented currently in the Parliament as it boycotted January 2014 parliamentary elections through which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party returned to power for the second consecutive term.

The party has been out of state power since 2006 when its chief Khaleda Zia completed her government’s mandated five-year term before transferring power, according to a now-defunct constitutional provision, to a caretaker administration.

BNP and its allies have long been campaigning to reinstate the caretaker government system to hold national election under it.