Staff Reporter :
National Citizen Party (NCP) Chief Organiser (South) Hasnat Abdullah declared on Saturday that no election would be acceptable without first altering the “rules of the game.”
“It does not matter whether the polls are held in November or December. What matters is that the election must be for a Constituent Assembly,” Hasnat said while addressing a discussion titled “Constituent Assembly Election in Implementation of the July Charter” at the party’s temporary office in Banglamotor, Dhaka.
The NCP leader also claimed that the government had been “sold out” the day Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus travelled to London.
Criticising the current state of the media and bureaucracy, he remarked, “The media now works as the mouthpiece of a single party. Even senior officials can be seen visiting Gulshan and Paltan after office hours.” Describing this as hostile to nationalist politics, Hasnat said, “The state structure should have been reoriented to serve the people. But after 5 August, we failed to act against the media, bureaucracy, and the military.”
Calling the constitution, a “textbook of fascism,” he argued that the entire political settlement must be redefined.
Meanwhile, NCP Member Secretary Akhtar Hossain criticised the July Declaration, calling it an “unfinished document.”
“The July Declaration announced by Chief Adviser and Chairman of the National Consensus Commission, Prof Yunus, remains incomplete,” he said.
Akhtar further stressed that Bangladesh now faces the inevitability of a new constitution. “The July martyrs gave their lives for reform. Reform means creating a new foundation, and that foundation is now a necessity,” he added.
While acknowledging that the July Charter is often described as a gentleman’s agreement, Akhtar cautioned, “History shows us how few remain gentlemen once they assume power.”
