BNP to attend talks with Consensus Commission tomorrow

The National Consensus Commission is set to hold talks with Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) tomorrow morning (17 April) as part of the series of dialogues with political parties to reach a national consensus over the state reform initiatives taken by the interim government.

The discussion will start at 10:30am at the LD Hall of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in the capital.

A five-member delegation, led by BNP standing committee member and former speaker Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, will attend the talks, said BNP media cell member Sayrul Kabir Khan today (16 April). 

Earlier in the day, a BNP delegation, led by its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir met Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and expressed its dissatisfaction about the outcomes of the meeting as the Chief Adviser did not give them any specific deadline for the election.

"We are not happy at all, we have clearly said if the election is not held by December the country's political and social situation will deteriorate further and it will be very difficult to bring under control," Mirza Fakhrul told reporters emerging from the meeting with the Chief Adviser.

But Law Adviser Asif Nazrul at a press briefing said the government clarified its stance saying the election would be held in between December 2025 to June 2026.

"December to June does not mean that we will deliberately delay the elections till May. December to June means that we will hold elections as soon as possible after December…the elections will be held as soon as possible between December and June," he said.

Noting that BNP is very positive over the reform recommendations of the National Consensus Commission, the party is going to sit with the consensus commission.

"We feel that the BNP is very sincere about reforms ... .they (BNP) agreed to most of the reform recommendations and they have a long tradition to support reforms," said Asif Nazrul.

On March 20 last, the National Consensus Commission opened its dialogues with political parties aiming to build a national consensus on the reform initiatives undertaken by the interim government. The commission has already held talks with 11 political parties.

The National Consensus Commission, formed under the leadership of Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, aims to establish a unified stance on critical reforms. Since its inception on 15 February 2025, the commission has been working to finalise recommendations for the state reform proposals. 

In the initial phase, key recommendations from five reform commissions — covering constitutional, public administration, electoral system, judiciary, and anti-corruption reforms — were compiled and shared with 39 political parties for their feedback. To date, 34 parties have responded.

The National Consensus Commission is working to build national consensus over reform initiatives by mid-July next, by completing the first round of talks with political parties by the first week of May next and entering the second round of talks in the second week of May.