Both agree to take tea at Bangabhaban

countryman · Gold Discusser Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 27

Dhaka, Dec 1 (bdnews24.com) – Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina have agreed to visit the Bangabhaban to take tea with President Iajuddin Ahmed, top aides to the rival political leaders said late Friday night.

But the initiative is not free from snags. The Awami League president wants her meeting to follow her counterpart's, a 14-party leader said.

According to one Bangabhaban source, the Hasina meeting has been scheduled for 4:00pm.

BNP sources said Khaleda, BNP chairperson, would wait for her secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan to return from his hometown of Narsingdi.

Iajuddin plans to offer "more concessions" to Hasina in his effort to woo her into withdrawing street protests, a source close to the chief adviser said.

The concessions will involve more changes to the Election Commission, the Bangabhaban source said.

Senior presidential aides phoned both leaders Friday night to formally invite them, the source said.

Mokhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, press adviser to the president, called Hasina, while the Khaleda invitation was extended by another senior official who the source refused to name.

Press adviser Chowdhury, asked by bdnews24.com, would not give details of the presidential diary but said Iajuddin had "engagements" in the morning.

"That means the tea meetings will have to take place in the late afternoon or early evening," Chowdhury said.

Abdul Jalil, the AL general secretary, told bdnews24.com Hasina was willing to go.

Rashed Khan Menon, chief of Workers Party, an ally of the AL-led 14-party alliance, confirmed her participation. "It has been decided that she will go. But her meeting will have to follow the BNP leader's," Menon said in response to bdnews24.com.

Earlier Friday evening, Adviser Mahbubul Alam emerged from a meeting of advisers to tell reporters the president would like to meet the two ladies over tea to try to end the political standoff.

Alam said they also discussed possibility of changing the polls schedule. "But the Election Commission will decide," he added.

Adviser Dhiraj Kumar Nath was not present at the meeting.

On demand for removal of election commissioners, he evaded a direct reply but said the three-month leave of Chief Election Commissioner MA Aziz was an "achievement".

The 14-party alliance has called for a transport shutdown as well as a halt to all traffic to the Bangabhaban unless demands such as Iajuddin's departure from the CA's office and removal of election commissioners.

Source: bdnews24.com
http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=3&id=51726#tp51726

				Visitors : Powered by phpBB Copyright BDDiscussion.com © 2006 All Rights Reserved.