Dhaka – Awami League advisory council member and commerce minister Tofail Ahmed Monday claimed that it is BNP leaders who informed AL that they proposed the former chief Justice KM Hasan’s name as the Search Committee head to the President during their talks with him.Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on the day said the BNP broke the secrecy about its proposal to the President on the formation of new Election Commission (EC) terming the BNP leader’s statement as self-contradictory.
“BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused me of breaking secrecy of the talks with the honourable President on the search committee to constitute a new Election Commission but his (Fakhrul) statement is definitely self-contradictory,” he said while speaking at a memorial meeting on late AL leader MA Aziz at old part of the capital this evening.
Tofail said, “Our party general secretary Obaidul Quader is a very competent politician. He is no needed to know about the issue from the President. I think our party general secretary came to know about issue from the BNP leaders,” he said.
The senior AL leader came up with the statement while talking to the reporters in his secretariat office in the city.
Earlier, on Sunday the ruling AL general secretary Obaidul Quader claimed that BNP proposed the name of former chief justice KM Hasan as the Search Committee head to the President during its talks.
However, hours after the statement of the AL general secretary on the issue BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir outright dismissed the claim.
Tofail alleged that BNP leader Fakhrul protested the statement of AL general secretary but his protest was not so strong. “The way BNP leader Fakhrul Islam protested the statement of Quader was not so strong. Even he did not reject the statement strongly,” he added.
The minister also said their party AL had proposed to enact a specific law for reconstitution of Election Commission but they did not propose any name for the search committee in a bid to appoint Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other commissioners to oversee the next general elections.
He said the President is an honest man and was a veteran politician. They have absolute faith and trust upon him (President). “We hope our President would form an acceptable EC comprising of neutral people,” he said.
Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, was critical of BNP leaders and their controversial statements saying, “How Awami League came to know the proposed names for the search committee during the talks. Simultaneously he is saying that they did not propose any names for the constitution of Election Commission.”
He said the BNP leaders do not need any help for disclosing any secret information as some of them have close links with the intelligence agencies and disclosed their proposed names fearing arrests. – Staff Reporter
