Khaleda didn’t mean to throw away charter: Fakhrul

BNP acting secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on Friday claimed that Khaleda Zia did not say that the constitution of the republic would be thrown away.

‘She rather said of removing the changed portion of the constitution,’ Fakhrul said while addressing a discussion meeting at the National Press Club.

Bangladesh National Awami Party organised the discussion meeting marking the 54th founding anniversary of the party.

Chaired by Bangladesh NAP president Jabel Rahman Ghani, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by Krishak Sramik Janata League president Abdul Kader Siddiquee, Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami, National Awami Party chairman Sheikh Showkat Hossain Nilu, Jatiya Party secretary general Abu Naser Mohammad Rahmatullah and Bangladesh NAP secretary general Golam Mostofa Bhuiyan.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, at a hunger strike programme of the party in the capital on July 13 had said, ‘This (changed with the 15th amendment) constitution will be thrown away with the change in the state power.’

Mirza Fakhrul, however, blamed the media for publicizing only a portion of Khaleda’s statement on the constitution.

‘Khaleda wanted to throw away the portion which does not reflect people’s aspiration,’ he said.

Fakhrul said human rights were not upheld in the changed constitution.

Without mentioning the name of anybody, Kader Siddiquee asked people not to throw away the constitution.

He, however, said the constitution was not a

Bible for which it could not be changed. Kader Siddiquee, a valiant freedom fighter, said 95 percent people of the country did not accept the government move to change the constitution.

About his latest political stance, he said he would have no qualm to side with the Rajakars (collaborators in 1971) at the fag end of his life.

‘At the end of my life, I want to see what happens if I become a Rajakar,’ he mockingly said.

He also suggested that exemplary punishment would have to be meted out to those who made the people Rajakars.