Next general elections to be held in due time and as per constitution: Quader

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said the next general elections will be held as per the constitution in due time.

"Whether BNP will take part in the elections is their own business, but the next elections will be held in due time according to the constitution," he said.

Quader, also ruling Awami League General Secretary, expressed this opinion while addressing a discussion held at party's central office at city's Bangabandhu Avenue here marking the Jail killing Day.  

"Elections will not be delayed for someone...either BNP would come to the elections or not is not an important issue," the ruling party leader told the discussion arranged by the Awami League.  

Criticising BNP's claim of unwillingness to participate in elections and dialogue, Quader said now you [BNP] are speaking loudly that you will not take part in the election and even not to participate in dialogue. "But who are calling you to participate in dialogue again?,"Quader questioned.

"What role you [BNP] had played last year when Sheikh Hasina invited you to participate in dialogue, asked Quader, adding: "So there is no chance of holding dialogue with you while you itself are offering it in advance." 

Drawing attention of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam, the AL general secretary said "I want to make it clear that whatever you shout about the caretaker government, but it is now in museum as per the order issued by the higher court. The caretaker government will never comeback from the museum."

"The elections will be held in Bangladesh in line with other democratic countries in the world," Quader reiterated.

Tarique Rahman, who now leading the BNP, remains in exile, but he signed a bond that he will not do politics again, he said, adding that "if you are bold enough please come to the field and do politics." 

Blasting the role of former president Ziaur Rahman, Obaidul Quader said Ziaur Rahman had rehabilitated the sectarian politics in the country, he said, adding that "BNP is not a party of freedom fighters, they are masked freedom fighters."

Terming that the communalism is now a number one enemy of the country, Quader said BNP is the dependable and reliable hotspot of communal forces and "Ziaur Rahman had planted the seedlings of communalism." 
Regarding the brutal killings of Bangabandhu and the national four leaders in the central Jail, Quader said "the heinous killings were taken place intending to make us guardian less, adding: "we have concrete evidence who carried out such brutal carnage? Who awarded and sent them abroad aiming to protect these perpetrators?"   

"Chief of Army Ziaur Rahman awarded and rehabilitated the killers. Even he [Zia] validate the ordinance for curbing the trial of Bangabandhu murder case," the AL leader said.   

Terming Ziaur Rahman as the mastermind behind the carnage of August 15 and the killings of the national four leaders, Quader said "Zia is the same culprit like the perpetrators of these offences. If he [Zia] was not the killer then why he had validated a law which caused an impediment in holding trial of the killing," he questioned.

Chaired by Awami League presidium member Begum Matia Chowdhury, the discussion also was addressed, among others, by Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque, Joint General Secretaries and Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, Mahbub Ul Alam Hanif, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Organising Secretary Ahmad Hossen, Liberation War Affairs Secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, Central Executive Member Mofazzal Hossen Chowdhury Maya, Awami League Dhaka City North unit General Secretary SM Mannan Kochi and Dhaka City South General Secretary Humayun Kabir.

Aminul Islam, deputy publicity and publication secretary of Awami League, moderated the function.