BNP chairperson and immediate past opposition leader Khaleda Zia did not turn up at swearing-in programme of the new cabinet at Bangabhaban on Sunday. Sources at the Cabinet Division said a letter was sent to the BNP chairperson inviting her to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the 49-member new cabinet led by Awami League President Sheikh Hasina. Contacted, a BNP leader close to Khaleda also confirmed that they got the invitation letter. But Khaleda, who lost her official portfolio of the opposition leader as her party boycotted the January-5 general election, did not join the programme. More than 1000 guests, including foreign diplomats, were invited to attend the function held at the Darbar Hall of the presidential palace at 3:30 pm. Most of the guests, including Jatiya Party Chairman and ex-president HM Ershad, his wife and leader of the opposition in parliament Raushan Ershad and foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka, joined the oath-taking ceremony. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her 48 other cabinet colleagues took the oath of office following Awami League’s ‘massive victory’ in the much-talked-about January 5 parliament elections. Hasina became Prime Minister for the second consecutive term and for the third time equating her arch rival Khaleda Zia. The BNP chief lost her official portfolio as the Parliament Secretariat on Saturday published a gazette naming Jatiya Party (JP) senior presidium member Raushan Ershad as leader of the opposition in the 10th Parliament. Khaleda went to her Gulshan office Saturday evening in her personal vehicle without the national flag. However, two police vehicles escorted her to her office. Meanwhile, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has termed the new government formed by Awami League will be an autocratic regime as it has no people’s mandate. “The government which will be formed on January 12 will be the administration of dictatorship without having any representation of people. This regime will in no way be considered both at home and abroad as the legal government,” he said in a statement on Saturday. Fakhrul also said the new government will not get constitutional legitimacy as it has no people’s mandate to run the state. – UNB
