AL turns down invitation to join parliament

In a statement last night, BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan pegged the opposition boycott as unfortunate and claimed that the AL had not responded to the government's repeated efforts to break the stalemate over 'trivial issues'.

He advised the AL not to dream of 'anything else other than democracy' and return to the Jatiya Sangsad session beginning tomorrow.

But talking to The Daily Star AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil dismissed the offer, saying it was not possible for the party to join the November 16 session as all three preconditions to the government for attending parliament went unmet.

The AL has been boycotting the Jatiya Sangsad since the budget

see page 11 col 8Coalition leader Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday called upon the main opposition Awami League to attend the parliament session, ending its prolonged boycott, but the AL dismissed the offer point-blank.

In a statement last night, BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan pegged the opposition boycott as unfortunate and claimed that the AL had not responded to the government's repeated efforts to break the stalemate over 'trivial issues'.

He advised the AL not to dream of 'anything else other than democracy' and return to the Jatiya Sangsad session beginning tomorrow.

But talking to The Daily Star AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil dismissed the offer, saying it was not possible for the party to join the November 16 session as all three preconditions to the government for attending parliament went unmet.

The AL has been boycotting the Jatiya Sangsad since the budget session when its lawmakers walked out to protest the switching off of the microphone of Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina by the chair.

The AL preconditions include unreserved apologies from Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Speaker Jamir Uddin Sircar and State Minister for Housing and Public Works Alamgir Kabir on three separate issues.

It demanded apologies from Khaleda for pegging a non-MP BNP newcomer as a de facto legislator for a Faridpur constituency, from Sircar for his comment that parliament functioned smoothly without the opposition and from Kabir for derogatory remarks against Hasina.

Speaking at a roundtable organised by Bangladesh Parliament Journalists Association on November 6 in Dhaka, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed wondered why the opposition made such demands in the first place that "we cannot meet".