The visiting United Nations assistant secretary general for South and
Central Asian affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco called on Bangladesh
Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday and discussed
different issues, including the next general election.
After the meeting at Khaleda’s residence at Gulshan, BNP vice-chairman
Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury told reporters that both sides had agreed to
hold another round of discussion in a couple of days.
The meeting between the BNP chief and the UN envoy lasted about two hours from 7:00pm.
Shamsher Mobin said that Fernandez-Tarancoand Khaleda Zia also had one-on-one talks during the meeting.
Shamsher said that at the meeting the emissary of the UN secretary
general and the Bangladesh opposition leader had discussed over the
letter the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, had sent to Khaleda Zia a
few days ago.
Asked what issues had been discussed in the meeting and whether the
election issue had come up, he said all issues had been discussed but
did not specify anything.
He declined reporters’ request to specify one or two issues saying that
details would be known after the second round of talks between Khaleda
and Fernandez-Taranco.
He also refused to make comments when asked whether there was progress in the talks.
When asked about deferral of the election as proposed by
Fernandez-Taranco during his meeting with the prime minister on the day,
Shamsher Mobin said they could not say anything about the meeting
between the prime minister and the UN envoy and what the prime minister
had said to him.
BNP standing committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan, BNP chairperson’s advisory council members Reaz Rahman and
Sabih Uddin Ahmed and UN resident representative in Dhaka Neil Walker
were also present at the meeting. (source)