June 23, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1423

DHAKA, June 22: The main opposition leader said on Saturday Bangladesh was in a “national crisis” after the unprecedented resignation of the president under pressure from the ruling party.

President Badruddoza Chowdhury submitted his resignation Friday after his Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) declared it had lost confidence in him, citing his failure to attend a function marking the death of the party’s founder.

Chowdhury, a former foreign minister and BNP secretary general, had been unanimously elected by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Islamist-allied ruling coalition in November for a five-year term as Bangladesh’s largely ceremonial president.

The main opposition Awami League said the resignation was a “consequence of the brute (governing) majority” and had plunged the country into a “national crisis”.

“The people of the country are now worried about parliamentary democracy and democracy itself,” party chief Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Zia’s arch-rival, told an overnight Awami League meeting.

Chowdhury admitted growing differences between him and the BNP but said he meant no disrespect to party founder Ziaur Rahman, Zia’s late husband, by not visiting his grave on the May 30 anniversary of the president’s 1981 assassination.

“Placing wreaths is not the only way to show respect,” Chowdhury told reporters. “There are many other ways.”

He said he was unsure why he was asked to resign and that he tried but failed to arrange a meeting with Zia.

“There was no scope to impeach me as I did not violate the constitution or commit ‘grave misconduct’,” he said, citing the official criteria for removing the president.

Chowdhury, a 71-year-old medical doctor, said he would retire from politics.

He announced his resignation on Thursday just hours after the Awami League said it would soon return to parliament, ending an eight-month boycott in protest at what it alleged was a rigged October 1 election in which it was swept out of power.

But Sheikh Hasina said on Saturday the party would not take its seats as scheduled on Sunday because of celebrations to mark the 54th anniversary of the Awami League.

Sources said the opposition MPs were likely to join the house Monday.

Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar took over as acting president until parliament elects a successor within 90 days. He received his first honour guard Saturday and met with Bangladesh’s chief justice, presidential spokesman Abu Jafar Mohammad Iqbal told AFP.

“I will try my best to perform my duties in conformity with constitutional guidance,” Sircar told reporters. “It is not important for me to know under which circumstances I have taken charge.”

The sacking of the president was widely criticised by Bangladeshi newspapers and intellectuals, who said the unprecedented move would tarnish the status of the country’s highest post.

“There has been no such practice or precedent in the history of Bangladesh,” said prominent lawyer Kamal Hossain, who helped write the country’s constitution.

“They can bring a no-confidence motion against the party leader but not the president,” he told Ekushey television. “The president in principle ceases to be a party man once elected to the high office.”

The Daily Star newspaper said in an editorial that the resignation “raises serious questions on the role and status” of the president as Chowdhury did not quit by choice.—AFP