The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Former finance minister and BNP leader M Saifur Rahman yesterday expressed his party's readiness to go to the polls and asked the caretaker government not to hold the next general election under state of emergency.

"Khaleda Zia has said that the BNP will take part in next election. We also favour that notion. But problems will surface if the election is held under the state of emergency," he told reporters at his Gulshan residence after an iftar party.

Saifur said he was ready to contest the polls if Khaleda Zia nominated him, and constituency was not a problem.

"I am ready to contest in any constituency in Sylhet," he said.

About party reform, Saifur Rahman, who once sided with the reformists and then renounced their stance, said the party's Secretary General and other policymakers would decide on that.

"I think there should be some reforms in the party," he said.

He said the 90-day caretaker government had taken too much time and now was the time to hold the election.

"The government has taken some good steps for reforms. But its priority should be next election. Staying too long in power this government has not done the right thing," said the once-outspoken politician.

Replying to a query on the expulsion of former BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and former whip Ashraf Hossain, Saifur said there was no scope now for nullifying the expulsion decision.

Replying to another query, he said he was confident that his party-led four-party coalition would do better if the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh were glued in the run-up to the polls, which are slated for December 18.