Oikya Front will not take part in dinner hosted by PM

Oikya Front will not take part in dinner hosted by PM

Dhaka, Oct 31 (Just News): Jatiya Oikya Front has decided against taking part in dinner at the Ganabhaban on Thursday (Nov 1), when it’s scheduled to attend talks with the ruling coalition led by the Awami League chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“We want to use the time for talks, which will be hampered by the dinner...There’s no other reason as time is valuable,” said the alliance’s chief Dr Kamal Hossain.

Responding to a query, the Gano Forum president said that the decision will not affect their talks with the ruling party.

According to people familiar with the matter, the decision came from an Oikya Front meeting on Wednesday. After which, Gano Forum General Secretary Mostofa Mohsin Mintu called his Awami League counterpart Obaidul Quader to inform the decision.

“We are going to the Ganabhaban at a time when the country is in a crisis. We are certainly not going there for dinner,” said Mahmudur Rahman Manna, who sits on the steering committee of the newly-formed alliance.

“We have told Awami League not to arrange dinner for us,” Manna, the convener of Nagorik Oikya, told Bangla Tribune.

A reliable source at the Oikya Front confirmed that BNP leaders were reluctant to take part in a dinner hosted by the government, which they say jailed their party chief Khaleda Zia on politically motivated charges.


(Just News/ys/2330hr)