Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad yesterday said he is no longer to be identified as an autocratic ruler after the High Court (HC) verdict on the constitution's 7th amendment.

“I have often been called an autocratic ruler and my rule has been dubbed as autocratic." But the HC in the verdict acknowledged that five years of my nine-year tenure was democratic, he said at a meeting.

Jatiya Party, a key partner of the Awami League-led grand alliance government, organised the discussion at the Institute of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh in the city to mark November 10 as the Democracy Day.

However, all other political and socio-cultural organisations observed the day as Shaheed Noor Hossain Day.

On this day in 1987, Noor Hossain, a city Awami Jubo League leader and a prodemocracy activist, was shot dead by police at the city's Zero Point at Gulistan while he was participating in a procession against the then Ershad-led government.

Referring to that day, Ershad said, the day should be described as the end of the military rule and the journey of democracy. “That is why we are observing the day as Democracy Day."

The former military ruler said that after assuming power in 1982, he promised the country will return to democratic rule within two years. “But I could not keep the promise and everybody knows why.”

He also mentioned that he would not prolong the military rule had there been no need for it. He even announced in parliament after the 1986 election that the country would never have military rule again.

JP Secretary General Ruhul Amin Hawladar MP also spoke at the meeting.