The governing BNP wants to install someone trusted and reliable in the office of president. In this it may choose an experienced politician from within the party rather than a bureaucrat or an academic. The observation among the governing party’s leaders is that in the past they ran into crisis by appointing a president who was not a person with the experience to withstand pressure at a moment of political crisis. Party leaders cite the example of the late president Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed. They say the BNP-appointed president Iajuddin, having failed to handle the situation, departed under pressure — which cleared the way for One-Eleven, and in its continuity the BNP faced a long political crisis. Learning from that bitter experience of the past, the BNP is being extremely careful this time in filling the state’s highest constitutional office.
The view at the party’s senior leadership level is that the person chosen as president should be someone loyal to the party, who holds the party’s principles, ideals and philosophy, who has long political experience and who is capable of handling a situation in a crisis. They say that, weighing everything, it is the BNP chairman and prime minister, Tarique Rahman, who will take that decision.
President Md Sahabuddin resigned yesterday, Friday, citing physical illness, before the end of his five-year term. On this sudden resignation, it has been learned that he resigned after receiving a “green signal” from the government. The government wanted him to resign, because over the past few months a certain slackness had developed in the president’s relationship with the government, which also became visible.
It is normally the practice for the prime minister to brief the president on a foreign visit after returning. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visited Malaysia and China from 21 to 26 June — his first foreign trip after taking office. On returning home, he spoke in the Jatiya Sangsad on 27 June about what the visit had achieved. But neither Bangabhaban nor the Prime Minister’s Office released any information about his having met the president or otherwise briefed him on the outcome of the visit. Many were therefore speaking of a distance having developed between the president and those in power.
Some within the BNP say that when the president (now former), Md Sahabuddin, went to London for treatment last May, he had a telephone conversation with the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The matter of that phone conversation then reached the government through the intelligence agencies, and the government took it seriously. It was mainly after this that the message to resign was conveyed to him from the government. BNP leaders believe it was in this connection that Md Sahabuddin was compelled to resign. Md Sahabuddin, however, has completely denied the phone conversation and called it entirely baseless.
Many believe that phone conversation was one of the reasons for the president’s resignation. The BNP’s top leadership felt that the confidence they had in Md Sahabuddin was cracked by that conversation. But it is also true that Md Sahabuddin is himself physically unwell, as he mentioned in his resignation letter.
Under the constitution, the Speaker will serve as acting president until a new president takes office. BNP leaders say a new president will be elected in the next session of parliament. It has been learned that the next session of parliament may sit in September. In this situation the governing party believes it has enough time for the presidential election.
According to party sources, the names of four senior BNP leaders are under discussion as possible candidates for the presidency. They are the party’s secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee members Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan and Nazrul Islam Khan. Some say, however, that a surprise could come from outside them, and that this depends entirely on Tarique Rahman.
The chief whip of the Jatiya Sangsad and BNP vice-chairman Md Nurul Islam Moni told Agamir Somoy: “The new president will be elected through the Jatiya Sangsad. That may happen in the next session of parliament.”
Answering a question, the chief whip said: “The next session must sit within two months of one session ending. On that reckoning, the session must sit by 15 September. So there is still enough time in hand.”
“The decision on whom the party will nominate for the office of president depends entirely on the BNP chairman and prime minister, Tarique Rahman. He will perhaps speak to the party’s senior leaders about it,” Nurul Islam Moni added.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report