Barister Shamim Haider Patwari, Secretary General of the Jatiya Party, has stated that it is now BNP’s responsibility to protect the Jatiya Party in the interest of the country and democracy. He made the remarks during a recent talk show appearance.
Shamim Patwari said, “Currently, the responsibility of protecting the Jatiya Party for the sake of democracy falls on the BNP. There have been calls to ban the Jatiya Party, although the issue seems to have subsided. We sincerely thank the BNP—and personally extend our thanks—that they have not fallen into this trap. They have not done so till now, and what they will do in the future remains to be seen. Why is it important that BNP avoids this trap? If the Jatiya Party gets banned, the Awami League is already banned in this context. So who will remain at the forefront during elections? There are essentially three main parties. In practice, constituencies would be divided: 200 to BNP, 50 to one party, 50 to another. Then other parties would pressure BNP, saying, ‘Give us an additional 100 seats, otherwise we won’t contest.’ BNP would become a puppet politically. Therefore, in the interest of democracy, it is BNP’s duty to protect the Jatiya Party.”
On the need for a political cooling period, he added, “If BNP fulfills this responsibility, I believe it will benefit the country, BNP, and everyone. Ziaur Rahman did this when he came to power, reviving all parties. If the Awami League had come to power in the 2006 elections, BNP would have immediately faced severe repression. The 21 August grenade incident had occurred before, which was debated in parliament, but after a two-year cooling period, elections took place. The Awami League did not immediately persecute BNP after the 2008 elections; the persecution began later. This shows the importance of a cooling period in Bangladesh.”
Regarding the army chief and potential power assumption, Patwari said, “Currently, the problem is that our honorable army chief has no interest in taking power or declaring an emergency. If he had wanted to, he could have done so on the fifth. The army has actually praised the chief for not taking power on the fifth. Right now, for the country’s interest, this is the situation: the country is not functioning properly at the moment. The government is thoughtless, irresponsible, and unstable. Advisors are coming from abroad, and there are foreign citizens holding important cabinet positions. This is a real constitutional issue.”
