The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Outspoken BNP Advisory Council member Brig Gen (retd) ASM Hannan Shah yesterday claimed that the unity process within their divided party was now nearer to the final stage.

"We have established contacts with the reformist leaders of the party and we hope to complete the process of BNP unity successfully," he told a press conference at a press briefing before meeting with some leaders of anti-reform faction of the party at his new DOHS residence at Mohakhali in the capital.

He announced that the leaders of other group, including former party Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, detained former Assistant Secretary General Ashraf Hossain and former Office Secretary Mofiqul Hassan Triptee, would be offered honorable posts after unity.

"But they have to abandon the October 29 decisions of the Standing Committee, which put the two factions apart on the question of party reforms," he added, repeating the same pre-condition, which was set earlier by top anti-reform group leader BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain, who is now staying in Singapore

Hannan Shah, who returned home after a "private visit" to Malaysia on Sunday, the day Khandaker Delwar left Dhaka for Singapore along with his ailing wife for medical treatment.

Sources close to Hannan Shah said he had telephonic conversations with two of the three top reformist leaders-Acting BNP Chairman M Saifur Rahman and Acting Secretary General Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, while he was in Malaysia.

"I firmly believe they (reformists) will return to the mainstream by accepting the party constitution and instruction of our leader (Begum Khaleda Zia)," Hannan Shah, who belongs to the anti-reform faction, said renewing another pre-condition Khandaker Delwar had put earlier without disclosing the contents of his discussion with Saifur and Hafiz.

When contacted, all the top reformist leaders, including Saifur and Hafiz, refused to make any comment on the statement made by Hannan Shah on the development of BNP unity process.

But, when asked, BNP (anti-reform) Joint Secretary General Babu Gayeshwar Chandra Roy sharply reacted and posing a question, saying, "Why the unity process leaving aside Khandaker Delwar Hossain, who is leading the party in the absence of Begum Zia?"

The BNP Joint Secretary General asserted saying, "The unity of the BNP should be achieved under the leadership Khandaker Delwar not avoiding him under any circumstances."

In reply to a question, Hannan Shah, who became suddenly active after the arrest of former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Begum Zia, said expelled BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan's application to the High Court to become a party against Begum Zia's writ petition challenging the Election Commission's (EC's) letter to Maj Hafiz group for dialogue might be an obstacle to the unity process.

Later, as part of the latest activism, BNP joint Secretaries-General Nazrul Islam Khan, Selima Rahman and Goyeswar Chandra Roy and Organizing Secretary Mohammad Shajahan held a meeting with Shah.