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Hasina sticks to her 'no'

CPA chairman, secretary general fail to woo her to meet

Staff Correspondent
A last-ditch attempt yesterday by the officials of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to convince the main opposition Awami League (AL) to join the CPA conference failed, as AL chief Sheikh Hasina refused to change her decision.
A disappointed Bob Speller, chairman of the CPA, refused to make any comment about the outcome of the meeting and pointing at Kazi Zafarullah, AL presidium member, said, "You better ask my friend."
At the meeting at her Dhanmondi residence, the CPA officials briefed Sheikh Hasina about the importance of the conference and requested her to join any event of her choosing.
"The leader of the opposition told CPA Chairman Bob Speller and Secretary General Denis Marshall that under the prevailing circumstances her partylawmakers had no way tojoin the CPA programmes," AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil told reporters.
Jalil said, "Sheikh Hasina politely turned down the request of the CPA officials to join any of the programmes and blamed the government's arrogant attitude for her party's decision".
CPA Treasurer Dr John Marek, Director (finance) Mahabub Alam and Speaker of West Bengal (India) Assembly Hashim Abdul Halim were also present at the meeting.
"The AL chief explained the reasons behind boycotting the conference. It was not an agreeable decision to the party," Jalil said. "But the government forced us to take the decision by not including the main opposition in the preparatory stage of the conference."
"As a self-respecting party, the AL cannot join the conference just to honour the last-minute invitation by the government, which ignored us from the very beginning," he said. "The government didn't attach any impor-
tance to the main opposition before the international pressure began to tell."
Replying to a query on the government's assurance to meet all the demands of the opposition, the AL leader said, "We didn't demand anything. We only requested the speaker to uphold the constitutional rights of the opposition lawmakers, but he failed."
Abdul Jalil said the government has to shoulder the responsibility if the country's image is blurred due to the opposition's boycotting the conference. "It's not our responsibility only, the government has to share it," he said.
Deputy Opposition leader Advocate Abdul Hamid said they told the CPA officials that the government would politicise the matter if the AL joined any of the events.
He said the AL had a plan to meet with the CPA delegates in a lunch or dinner. "But the government scheduled the programmes for the visiting lawmakers in such a way that it left no space for us, " he added.
On mismanagement of the opening day of the CPA conference, Abdul Jalil said, "We cannot share the government's failure."
AL presidium member Abdus Samad Azad and press adviser to the party chief Jawadul Karim were also present at the meeting.