AL unbending on CPA meet boycott

"We have taken a decision on the CPA conference and there is no scope to join it under the present circumstances," AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil said emerging from the party's Central Working Committee (ALCWC) meeting.

He brushed aside the rumours about his party's participation in the conference at the last minute.

"Despite our eagerness, we are not participating in the conference as the government totally ignored the main opposition in the run-up to the conference," he told newspersons.

The ALCWC meeting was held at the party's Dhanmondi office with senior leader Abdus Samad Azad in the chair in absence of party president Sheikh Hasina, who is sick.

Jalil said the BNP-Jamaat-led coalition government was not sincere in AL's participation in the conference. "What the government is doing now for our participation, is doing it under international pressure."

He said the ALCWC, the highest decision-making body of the party, approved the boycott decision taken by the AL parliamentary party and also approved by the presidium earlier.

The ALCWC meeting alleged that the four-party coalition government reduced the CPA conference into a party programme, exposing the 'meanness' and undemocratic character of the government.

The AL leaders urged all to join hands against the misdeeds of the government and launch a massive movement to dislodge it from power.