'Govt obstructing BNP reorganizing process'

BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain has alleged that the government is creating obstacles to their party's reorganizing process by not allowing it to hold its councils at the grassroots level.

He came up with the allegation while speaking at a sit-in program in front of the National Press Club on Friday, arranged by Swadhinata Forum, demanding the release of BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

Khandaker Mosharraf said, "We're not allowed to do politics. We're trying to hold councils at the district and upazila levels to reorganize our party, but we're not getting permission for it as the government is obstructing the process."

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee member, said a Dhaka court issued an injunction on holding the council of their party's student body Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) which was scheduled to be held on Saturday. JCD's council was obstructed as part of blocking the democratic process in the country, he added.

He said the government has kept Khaleda Zia in jail with an 'ulterior motive'. "Khaleda Zia is the first female Prime Minister of the country who freed the country from the grasp of autocratic ruler HM Ershad and established parliamentary democracy. She is also the symbol and mother of democracy."

He said it is Awami League which had introduced one-party Baksal rule by annihilating democracy in 1975 while BNP founder Ziaur Rahman established multiparty democracy. "Awami League had no existence when Ziaur Rahman introduced multiparty democracy."