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Polls-time Govt

Ashraf, Fakhrul 'talk in secret

The BNP leader denies

Rashidul Hasan and Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir
had a closed-door meeting last night on the stalemate over polls-time government, sources in both parties told The Daily Star.
However, talking to reporters at the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office, Fakhrul denied having had any meeting with Ashraf.
"I am sorry. I cannot make you [journalists] happy. There was no meeting between us. Those who are spreading such FROM PAGE 1
false and baseless news are doing so to create confusion," added Fakhrul.
The sources said the long-awaited one-to-one meeting was held at BNP lawmaker Ashraf Uddin Nizan's Gulshan residence between 7:00pm and 8:00pm. It lasted nearly 45 minutes.
The BNP acting secretary general had given his counterpart a written statement containing the opposition's demands, sources close to Syed Ashraf told The Daily Star.
After the meeting, Fakhrul went straight to the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office and briefed her about the parley.
The media was not informed in advance about the meeting neither by the two leaders nor their parties.
On November 21, the AL general secretary phoned Fakhrul to fix a meeting with him. In reply, the BNP leader requested him to delay the announcement of the polls schedule by the Election Commission, BNP insiders said.
As Ashraf declined to take any measures to
that end, Fakhrul proposed to sit behind closed doors without informing the media.
Fakhrul yesterday called his counterpart and set the time and venue for their meeting.
Sources close to Fakhrul said the BNP acting secretary general went to meet Ashraf in the car of BNP assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony.
The meeting took place two days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while exchanging pleasantries on the Armed Forces Day programme at Senakunjo, called upon Fakhrul to sit with Ashraf to find ways to end the deadlock.
On November 19, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia met President Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban and requested him to take measures to convince the ruling party to sit in a dialogue with the opposition to resolve the crisis over polls-time government.
The political situation has lately worsened with the AL and BNP sticking to their stances. While the ruling party and its allies want the election to be held under an all-party adminis-
tration, the BNP-led 18-party alliance demands a non-party government to oversee the polls.
Against this backdrop, different quarters at home and abroad have been mounting pressure on the two sides to come to the negotiating table to resolve their differences.
The opposition combine has been campaigning for restoration of the caretaker government system since the present government scrapped the provision through the 15th amendment to the constitution in June 2011.
The BNP and its allies have so far enforced over 20 days of hartal on this issue.
Earlier on October 26, Hasina phoned Khaleda and invited her to the Gono Bhaban on October 28 to talk about the next parliamentary election. But Khaleda said she was ready to sit with her any day after the opposition's 60-hour hartal ended on October 29. The much-awaited talks between the two top leaders did not come to pass.
On October 22, Fakhrul sent a letter to Ashraf, urging him to take steps to hold dialogue between the two parties.