Khaleda to sit with BNP executive committee Feb 3
Ahead of the delivery of the verdict in Zia orphanage graft case, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has called a meeting of the party’s top central forum, National Executive Committee.
Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told bdnews24.com on Sunday the committee of 502 members will sit with Khaleda in Dhaka on February 3.
“All preparations for the meeting are complete” he said, but added the venue was yet to be finalised.
“This meeting is very significant for different reasons,” he said.
The committee is supposed to meet every three months in line with the party’s constitution, but this will be the first since its formation four months after their sixth national council on Mar 19, 2016.
Besides the members of the committee, presidents and general secretaries of the party’s district units and partners in the 20-party alliance led by the BNP are supposed to join the meeting.
The announcement of the meeting comes amid rising tension in the political arena over the Feb 8 delivery of the verdict in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
Khaleda and five others are accused of embezzling Tk 21 million foreign donation meant for the trust when she was prime minister between 2001 and 2006.
They face maximum life term imprisonment if convicted, and in that case, Khaleda will be ineligible to run in the next general elections scheduled by the end of this year.
The BNP has threatened to topple the government if its chief is convicted ‘wrongly as part of a conspiracy to keep the party out of the polls’.
The government has shrugged off the BNP’s threat, questioning its ability to launch any large-scale movement and warned it against violence.
