March 16, 2007	Friday	Safar 26, 1428

DHAKA, March 15: The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday said she would endorse all decisions and activities of the interim government, if her party was voted to power in the next general elections.

“There is nothing to be worried about the activities of the present government and we will ratify its decisions, if we are voted to power,’ she told reporters at the Zia International Airport before leaving for the United States on Thursday morning.

Asserting that the interim government was ‘arresting big thieves and corrupt persons,’ Hasina said that she saw ‘no problems in approving its actions and decisions’.

She claimed that the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed is ‘an outcome of the movement of Awami League-led political combine’ and said that ‘if the government failed the responsibility would fall on her party’.

The League president also demanded ‘elections at the earliest, after completing necessary reforms and ensuring a congenial atmosphere’.

“Holding the polls in the quickest possible time is necessary to restore the democratic process and the people took part in the movement against the BNP-Jamaat government for a free and fair election,” she said. “Delay in holding the election would frustrate the people.”

When her attention was drawn to speculations that she has been asked by the military backed government to leave the country, and for sine die, Hasina said that she was going there to see her son and look after her daughter-in-law Christina Wajed, who underwent a gall bladder surgery on March 7.

Besides, she said that she would ‘come back after a month’.