The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Expelled BNP Joint Secretary General Ashraf Hossain yesterday said Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan is the legitimate Secretary General of the party since his expulsion order by imprisoned party Chief Begum Khaled Zia was neither well thought out nor legal.

“An arrested person can neither think properly nor take a correct decision. And as such, her (Begum Zia’s) order was neither correct nor legal,” he told journalists after a meeting with BNP Secretary General Mannan Bhuiyan at the later’s Gulshan residence in the afternoon.

Referring to the Wednesday’s gathering of a large number of senior leaders and former MPs to extend support to and confidence in the leadership of Mannan Bhuiyan, he said, “Overwhelming majority of BNP leaders, former ministers and former MPs as well as workers have rejected the expulsion order.”

Asked about Khandaker Delwar Hossain’s claim that the people and the grassroots level leaders are with him, Ashraf Hossain posed the question, “How the people and grassroots workers can support corrupt and undemocratic person?”

He reiterated that Begum Zia, through issuing the expulsion orders against Mannan Bhuiyan and him, has proved once again that the party needs democratic reforms.

Flanked by BNP Advisory Council member Major General (retd) ZA Khan, Ashraf Hossain said they would announce the name of the Acting Chairman of the party as soon as possible.

He, however, refused to divulge who is going to be the Acting Chairman of the BNP.

In an oblique reference to the lifestyle of Begum Zia’s both the imprisoned sons-Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko-he said, they were devoid of the ideals of the late President Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the BNP.

“Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman led a descent and honest life. Zia was never after money during his life. We shall follow the ideals and teachings of Zia and free the party from all corruption, criminalisation and dynastic control,” he said.

BNP Advisory Council member Major General (retd) ZA Khan, who was standing by Ashraf Hossain, added that they would hold the party council after the withdrawal of ban on indoor politics.

“We want to establish democracy in the party, beginning from the top down to the grassroots level of the organisation,” he said asserting that democracy can never flourish in the country with political parties with democratic practice.