RANGPUR — If the verdict of the referendum is not implemented, the people will not stand by any government, Akhtar Hossain, member-secretary of the National Citizen Party (NCP) and member of parliament for Rangpur-4, said Tuesday.
“If the referendum is ignored, the people of Bangladesh will not even stand by a BNP government,” he said.
He spoke as chief guest at a public reception and mass iftar gathering organized by 11 parties at the Mofazzal Hossain Model Government High School grounds in Kaunia, Rangpur, on the afternoon of Feb. 24.
The current government was formed through a popular uprising, the referendum and the July Order, Hossain said. If the directives of the July Charter are not properly implemented, the people will not accept it.
He alleged that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has yet to take a clear position on the July killings and the trial process. Extortion and violence have also occurred in various places since the election, he said.
On the referendum, Hossain said more people had supported the referendum than had voted to form the government. “There can be no trifling with that verdict,” he said.
Out of respect for the people’s verdict, members must take the oath as part of the Constitution Reform Council and work to implement reforms, he said. Otherwise the public will take to the streets, he warned.
Until 2024 the BNP marched shoulder to shoulder with others in the pro-democracy movement, Hossain said, but it has since betrayed the people’s expectations.
Kaunia upazila Jamaat amir Abdus Salam Sarkar chaired the event. Upazila Jamaat president Md. Abdur Rahim, naib-e-amir Sheikh Nazrul Islam and NCP district and upazila leaders, along with local leaders of other political parties, also attended.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report