June 19, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1429

DHAKA: The detained former prime minister and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Begum Khaleda Zia, on Wednesday demanded lifting of the state of emergency by June and holding of general elections by October.

“No election could be held under emergency. It [emergency] must go within this month to create a congenial atmosphere to ensure participation of all political parties in the national election,” said Khaleda Zia. “And there can be no reason to drag parliamentary polls to December. The government must handover power to the elected representatives by October.”

Khaleda Zia made the statements while talking to her lawyers, with the reporters present, in a special court set up in the national parliament building complex.

Khaleda is facing three corruption charges, brought under the emergency powers rules. She expressed apprehension about fairness in the trial of her cases and demanded that trial of the cases be conducted under the general laws. “Can there be a fair trial under the emergency rules?”

Asked about her party’s joining the political dialogue with the government, the BNP chief said, ‘a congenial atmosphere is a must for the success of the dialogue…where is the neutrality of the government…Are they sitting with all parties?’

Notably, the caretaker government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed and the Election Commission has had several rounds of dialogues with Awami League and its political allies over the past few months. But they have not yet held any talks with the BNP so far. Khaleda warned the government that ‘no election could be acceptable without participation of all parties’.

Referring to the government’s pronounced plan to conduct local level election before the parliamentary ones, she emphatically said, “the caretaker government does not have any mandate to hold local government polls.”

Khaleda also observed that the incumbents have entirely lost the confidence of the people. “Although the present government claimed their popularity was at peak at the initial stage, now we read in newspapers that the popularity has gone down to zero.

Khaleda again demanded that the government immediately send abroad of her ailing sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman. “Not only my sons, all detained politicians having ailments in custody must be allowed to have better treatment abroad,” she added.

The former prime minister was also critical of the present economic situation which she said is getting worse day by day and people are starving.