Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday gave a broad hint that she would
not compromise her position as the head of the polls-time interim
government.
Presiding over the first routine meeting of the reorganised cabinet at
the secretariat, she called upon the ministers to do their best in
ensuring that all major political parties take part in the 10th
parliamentary elections.
She asked her cabinet colleagues to assist the Election Commission in holding a free, fair and participatory election.
‘The prime minister has told the first meeting of her interim cabinet
that the main responsibility of the polls-time cabinet is to help the
Election Commission in holding a free, fair and participatory election,’
a minister told New Age.
About the main opposition’s demand for a free and fair election, Sheikh
Hasina said her cabinet would prove that the polls could be free and
fair under a political government, the minister told New Age adding that
the prime minister had also given a broad indication that the election
would be held with herself being at the helm according to the
constitution. She also advised her cabinet colleagues to make efforts
individually to make the elections inclusive.
The Election Commission in the evening announced that the general elections would be held on January 5 next year.
At a meeting at her Ganabhaban residence in the evening, the prime
minister reportedly asked her old advisers – public administration
affairs adviser HT Imam, energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury,
economic affairs adviser Mashiur Rahman, health and family welfare and
social welfare affairs adviser Syed Modasser Ali, education and
political affairs adviser Alauddin Ahmed and international affairs
adviser Gowher Rizvi – to resign amidst growing criticism over the
number of advisers growing longer after the appointment of four new
advisers. None of them attended the cabinet meeting.
All of the old advisers were appointed with the status of minister
immediately afer the Awami League assumed office in January, 2009.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has declared that it would resist
holding of the polls with Sheikh Hasina, also president of Awami League,
at the helm of the government.
The prime minister, however, expressed her hope that the BNP would finally join the polls.
Referring to media reports, a number of cabinet members inquired about
the ‘secret meeting’ between LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed
Ashraful Islam, also AL general secretary, and acting BNP secretary
general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, for a political negotiation about
which they claimed they were in the dark.
Ashraful confirmed that the meeting was held where the BNP leader had
placed a written proposal for a free and fair election, said a junior
minister.
‘This is the first cabinet meeting of the “all-party” election-time
government,’ cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told a
press briefing.
He, however, could not say when the interim cabinet would stop taking policy decisions in the run-up to the polls.
Replying to a question, the top civil bureaucrat confirmed that none of
the 11 advisers to the prime minister had been invited to the weekly
cabinet meeting. ‘None of the advisers to the prime minister attended
the cabinet meeting,’ he said, adding that the prime minister had termed
it ‘an all-party government.’
Sheikh Hasina on November 21 downsized her cabinet by dropping a total
of 30 ministers and state ministers to run the election-time
administration. A total of 21 ministers and seven state ministers have
been incorporated in her smaller cabinet. But the number of advisers has
been increased to 11 from seven.
On November 18, Sheikh Hasina reorganised the cabinet by inducting eight
new faces, mostly from the Ershad-led Jatiya Party, turning it into a
four-party government. A total of eight parties, including the main
opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have representations in
parliament.
Sheikh Hasina earlier had proposed to form ‘an all-party government’ to
oversee the 10th national election, but the proposal was turned down by
the BNP and its allies in the 18-party alliance.
The opposition alliance has long been demanding restoration of the
constitutional provision for a non-party caretaker government, which was
annulled in 2011. (source)