Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has invited opposition leader Khaleda Zia to Gono Bhaban, her official residence, Sunday evening to discuss about polls-time government.
The PM also urged the BNP chairperson to withdraw the call for 60-hour strike, generally known as hartal, Ashraful Alam Khokon, the PM’s deputy press secretary, told media.
The BNP chairperson was at her home Gulshan when she talked with the PM.
The much-awaited phone call was made around 6:20 pm (local time) after a daylong drama over the telephonic conversation.
The prime minister made the phone call over Khaleda Zia’s cellphone as her red phone in her Gulshan residence is out of order.
About the inoperative red phone of the opposition leader in her Gulshan residence, the prime minister said she would enquire about the matter. “I couldn’t reach you despite making repeated phone calls. I’ll enquire about why the phone is out of order.”
The prime minister went on: “I don’t know whether the phone was dead or made dead. I’ll enquire about it tomorrow.”
Turning to her invitation to Khaleda to Ganobhaban, Hasina said. “I want you to have dinner with me on Monday and you can bring as many guests as you wish.”
Hasina, however, requested Khaleda Zia to give her a list of how many members will attend the dinner.
Earlier, the PM phoned Khaleda at 1:15 pm “but failed to reach” despite trying for half an hour, PM’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told The Daily Star, a local newspaper.
While addressing a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital on Friday, Khaleda threatened with a 60-hour hartal from tomorrow morning if the government does not initiate talks with her party by today over formation of a non-partisan election-time government.
On October 21, the BNP chief proposed forming a non-partisan polls-time government headed by a respected person to be chosen by consensus between the ruling and opposition parties and that 10 advisers would come from the caretaker governments of 1996 and 2001.
Khaleda came up with the proposal in a counter move to the prime minister’s recent offer to form an all-party election-time government.
In her proposal, the PM however didn’t clarify who would head the all-party polls-time government.
On October 22, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on behalf of the BNP-led 18-party alliance sent a letter to ruling AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam for holding a dialogue on Khaleda’s formula on polls-time government.
BBN/SSR/AD-26Oct13-7:54 pm (BST)