Ministers and State Ministers on Monday tendered their resignations to the Prime Minister during the Cabinet meeting to clear the way for reconstituting the Cabinet for an all-party election time government. The Ministers and the State Ministers present in the meeting tendered their
resignations before the Cabinet meeting began, according to meeting sources. They said that earlier, in the last Cabinet meeting on November 4, the Prime Minister asked the ministers to resign so that she could induct some new faces in the planned smaller cabinet. Talking to the
reporters at the Secretariat after the day’s Cabinet meeting, Information
Minister Hasanul Haque Inu said the Ministers and State Ministers attending
the day’s meeting have tendered their resignations to the Prime Minister.
He said the Ministers and the State Ministers would be able to do their
official and executive duty until the Prime Minister accepts their
resignation. An official at the Cabinet Division confirmed that Foreign
Minister Dr Dipu Moni, Shipping Minister M Shajahan Khan and State Minister
for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman did not attend the day’s Cabinet
meeting. Meanwhile, briefing reporters after the day’s Cabinet meeting,
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain said that as per the Constitution,
the Ministers and the State Ministers usually tender their resignation to
the Prime Minister addressing the President. He said the day’s meeting
was perhaps the last meeting of the Cabinet in its present form. The
Cabinet Secretary also informed that the Cabinet will not be dissolved, but
reconstituted and it will be smaller than the existing one. Several
others, including Finance Minister AMA Muhith, minister without portfolio
Suranjit Sengupta, and State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Capt
(retd) AB Tajul Islam have earlier submitted the resignation letters to the
Prime Minister. Despite the main opposition alliance’s threat to boycott
elections, the AL-led Grand Alliance has initiated moves to form the
all-party polls-time interim cabinet in line with Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina’s proposal. But, the BNP-led 18-party alliance has already
rejected Hasina’s all-party polls-time government proposal. Khaleda has
asked her arch rival Hasina to bring back a non-party caretaker system, or
else it will not participate in the next polls because it fears an election
without the caretaker government will not be free, fair and credible. The
BNP and its 17 allies including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami since Sunday
morning have been enforcing the third nonstop strike in a series which this
time is for 84 hours, demanding a non-party government to oversee the
national elections. Country’s two arch political rivals who alternately
ruled Bangladesh for more than the last couple of decades held phone talks
on October 26, the first direct conversation between the two leaders since
January 2009 when Hasina cabinet took oath of office. Although the two
parties are seeking dialogue to end impasse over the formation of the
polls-time government, no headway has been made so far. Parliament is due
to expire on January 24 next and elections reportedly should be held within
90 days before its expiry. – UNB
