By IANS
Dhaka : The Awami League (AL), Bangladesh’s oldest political party, has endorsed the demand made by some of its members that those who actively opposed the 1971 freedom movement be barred from contesting elections.
With many of its top leaders, including former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in jail, the truncated presidium, the party’s highest policy making body, Friday decided to take a common stance along with other constituent members who are invited to the current dialogue with the Election Commission.
The presidium said it would work for exclusion of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the principal religion-based party that provided cadres, called ‘collaborators’, who actively worked with the Pakistan Army and the then East Pakistan government during the liberation movement.
The party and a number of Islamist groups were banned under the constitution of free Bangladesh, but were brought into the political mainstream after the assassination of the country’s founding father and AL chief, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
The Election Commission has said that it could consider a ‘mechanism’ to ban JI’s participation in polls if mooted by many parties.
Conscious of the need to maintain unity among the 14-party alliance, the Presidium meeting, chaired by acting AL president Zillur Rahman, authorized Tofail Ahmed to build up contacts with the alliance leaders to work on a strategy for the talks on the electoral reforms proposed by the EC, The Daily Star said Saturday.
Ahmed was Sheikh Mujib’s political secretary and remains a key leader of the party.
“We want to have an integrated approach,” Tofail Ahmed told the media.
Politicians cannot meet openly as the country is under a national emergency where only indoor activity has been allowed.
Using seemingly ‘non-political’ approach, AL will observe the 61st birthday of its jailed chief, Sheikh Hasina on Sep 28 by holding a milad mehfil, a religious congregation.