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4 decide to quit, 3 wait

Unmoved Ershad to 'send resignation letters of JP ministers to president'

Shakhawat Liton, Rashidul Hasan and Prabir Barua Chowdhury
Four Jatiya Party leaders yesterday handed over their letters of resignation as polls-time cabinet members to party chief HM Ershad for "submission to the president".
They are quitting the cabinet in line with Ershad's decision that the JP will neither take part in the January 5 general election nor remain part of the polis-time government, the party says.
However, two other ministers and an adviser to the prime minister were yet to follow suit.
"Our party chairman will submit our resignation letters to the president," Ruhul Amin Howlader, civil aviation and tourism minister, said yesterday.
He is one of the four who are stepping down as cabinet members. The
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other three are GM Quader, commerce minister; Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for youth and sports, and Salma Islam, state minister for women and children affairs.
"Since the president is currently abroad, our chief will place our resignation letters to him on his return," said Howlader while addressing a press briefing that began around 6:30pm at Ershad's residence after a meeting of senior party leaders.
President Abdul Hamid is scheduled to come home from Singapore tonight.
Accordingto Article 58 (1) of the constitution, a minister needs to submit his/her resignation letter to the prime minister for submission to the president.
When his attention was drawn to this aspect of the constitution, Mujibul Haque Chunnu said the JP ministers gave the resignation letters to Ershad because the party chief had ordered them to do so.
" Now, our party will send the resignation letters to the proper authorities," Chunnu, also a presidium member of the party, told The Daily Star around 7:00pm.
Around 10:10pm, Ershad told reporters his wife, Health Minister Raushan Ershad, argued in the party meeting that they should submit resignation letters to the president, who had administered their oath.
"That's why I will go to the president to submit resignation letters instead of the prime minister. Besides, the prime minister ultimately sends
resignation letters to president."
Ershad added he will get the resignation letters of Raushan, Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud and PM's Adviser Ziauddin Bablu today.
J P Treasurer Major (retd) Khaled Akhtar earlier in the morning said, "If anybody ignores the party chiefs order to resign from the cabinet, s/he will be expelled from the party."
Ruhul Amin Howlader, also secretary general of the party, said Ershad had taken the decision to pull out of the government and the election to bring an end to the ongoing political conflict.
Other party policymakers believe the resignations will add to the pressure on the government for the postponement of the election.
In a dramatic move on Tuesday, Ershad announced his party would not take part in the January 5 polls as the "atmosphere for an inclusive election is absent".
The next day, he asked the JP leaders to resign from the polls-time cabinet and the party's parliamentary candidates to withdraw nomination papers.
The former military dictator claimed he alone had taken the decision.
Infamous for frequently changing positions, Ershad, however, stuck to his guns till yesterday despite tremendous pressure from the government to take part in the polls.
A number of JP presidium members close to Ershad said it's still a mystery from where he had got the strength to adopt such a rigid stance.
One JP minister said Ershad conveyed his
determination to Raushan before she went to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at noon yesterday.
Raushan wanted to have discussions with the PM before carrying out Ershad's instructions. She along with Howlader and Ghunnu met Hasina at her office around 12:10pm yesterday and discussed different issues, said the minister preferring anonymity.
Their visit to the Prime Minister's Office led to speculations that they might submit resignation letters to the PM.
While discussing with the three, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina enquired from them about the demands made by Ershad. "What does he [Ershad] want for participating in the polls?" a JP leader quoted Hasina as saying.
During the meeting, a JP leader proposed that the PM take measures for announcing a fresh polls schedule to bring the BNP-led alliance to the election. The proposal, however, got rejected by Hasina.
"Apa |Hasina] told us that there is not enough time... Besides, BNP will not participate in the election even if the polls schedule is changed," he said.
"I also drew the PM's attention to the ongoing violence in the country. But the PM said this is nothing serious. She will restore calm."
The JP leaders no initiative was taken to scrap the cases against Ershad in the last five years, Hasina said she would take care of it.
Emerging from the meeting, Howlader, said, "We came here to talk with the prime minister. We haven't yet submitted our resignations. We will let you know our final decision after talking to our party chief."
His statement gave rise to rumours that Ershad might again change his decision as he did many times in the past.
Raushan, Howlader and Chunnu entered Ershad's residence around 2:40pm and held a long meeting with the JP chief. Salma joined later. GM Quader came more than half an hour after the meeting.
They decided to give their resignation letters to Ershad.
Raushan proposed to Ershad that the JP should participate in the polls, said a presidium member. "The BNP will gain if you don't participate in the polls. You better talk with the prime minister and place your demand - how many seats (parliamentary constituencies! you want and other issues."
But Ershad did not agree.
Following an understanding with the ruling Awami League, the JP quit the AL-led grand alliance on November 18 to independently contest the next polls and to emerge as the main opposition party in the new parliament.
AL policymakers had assured him that several components of the BNP-led alliance and some Islamic parties would participate in the election.
They also told him that some BNP senior leaders would quit the BNP to contest die polls as independent candidates.
But all the assurances proved false on December 2, the last day of filing nomination papers. This frustrated Ershad, a JP minister told The Daily Star on Wednesday night.
"He (Ershad) thinks the Awami League will form the government after the election, but he will not get anything. Why he should contest the polls?" the minister said.
On condition of anonymity, a senior JP leader claimed that Ershad had been given a huge amount of money for making the U-turn. The transaction was made with the help of a businessman close to the ex-president.
Ershad, however, rejected outright the allegation while making the announcement on Tuesday.