Shawdesh Desk:

Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders as well as its student wing Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s president and general secretary candidates expressed disappointment as a Dhaka court on Thursday halted JCD’s national council session scheduled for Saturday.

They blamed government conspiracy behind the court order as it came in the final hour of Thursday, week’s last working day followed by a two-day weekend, and added that it (order) denied the defendant BNP leaders the opportunity for immediately going to the court seeking stay on the order.

This time the JCD was scheduled for electing its leaders through direct vote and nine president and 19 general secretary candidates had been conducting campaign for the election.

BNP secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, after meeting BNP standing committee members and senior party lawyers at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, termed the order unprecedented, saying that it  came following interference by the government.

He said that the BNP was not interfering in holding the JCD council, adding that the JCD leaders themselves would decide about their council.

He further said that the leaders, all former top leaders of the JCD and responsible for  holding the council, would inform the new date of the council.

‘The court has issued the notice over Chhatra Dal council. We will answer the court’s query as per the law,’ he said.

Fakhrul alleged that the government had introduced a dreadful political culture of controlling politics through the judiciary.

Dhaka Assistant Judge’s Court IV, responding to a petition filed by Aman Ullah, assistant religious affairs secretary of the dissolved JCD committee, suspended JCD’s sixth council session and asked 10 BNP senior leaders to explain in seven days why the JCD central council session would not be suspended.

‘The court yesterday halted Chhatra Dal’s council. The country lacks a democratic process now. We have been trying to introduce democratic practices in our party and its front and associate organisations. The government is hindering this,’ BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharrof Hossain said on Friday.

In his petition, Aman sought the suspension mentioning that his right was ‘unlawfully affected’ and an unstable situation might occur if the council session took place.

He said that the BNP had dissolved the central committee on June 3 and set an age limit for those vying for the posts in the JCD central leadership, which triggered resentment within the organisation and led to agitation.

Besides, he alleged, there is no legal scope for the BNP to interfere in the JCD council as it is an associate organisation of the party but it formed a search committee and later formed an election conducting committee for holding the council.

In a sequel to the movement against the BNP’s decision by JCD dissidents, the BNP on June 23 expelled 12 senior JCD leaders.

JCD insiders said that Aman Ullah was a follower of a senior Juba Dal leader and, in student politics, of an expelled vice-president of the dissolved JCD central committee.

BNP senior joint secretary-general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, expressing his disappointment at the suspension order, termed the order a part of a deep-rooted conspiracy and government’s master plan against the BNP.

JCD president candidate Fazlur Rahman Khokon condemned the suspension and blamed the government for the decision.

‘We were eagerly waiting for the council session. The BNP did not interfere in forming our committee. Former JCD top leaders who are also BNP leaders were helping us to hold our council session democratically. We cannot accept the court decision,’ JCD general secretary candidate Md Hasan, also known as Tanjil Hasan, said.

Two other candidates suspected that a quarter in the BNP backing certain candidates might have a hand behind the petition fearing defeat of their candidates.

‘Aman is neither a candidate nor a councillor in Saturday’s council and the suspension based on his appeal is illogical. The expelled JCD leaders had also been working to make the sixth council successful. We all are shocked at the court’s suspension,’ Dhaka east city JCD general secretary Giasuddin Manik told New Age.

Manik, who was active in the movement against any age bar on JCD leaders, said that their movement was for establishing their rights, not for affecting the JCD or the BNP.