The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Five advisers of the Caretaker Government yesterday held an exclusive meeting with former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia at her Shaheed Moinul Road residence at Dhaka Cantonment in the city.

The meeting attended by Adviser for Communications Maj Gen (Retd) Ghulam Quader, Adviser for Law and Justice AF Hassan Ariff, Adviser for Foreign Affairs Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Adviser for LGRD M Anwarul Iqbal and Adviser for Education and Commerce Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman.

BNP Secretary General Khondoker Delwar Hossain and Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan were present at the meeting. The content of the meeting, which began at 7:45pm, could not be known till filing of the report at 9:30pm. However, insiders said the advisers talked about the tentative date of the next phase of dialogue with the BNP.

Sources said, BNP's seven-point demands, including withdrawal of state of emergency before the general elections, deferment of upazila polling date, cancellation of Representation of People Order (RPO) and delimitation of parliamentary constituencies also came up for discussion. A press briefing was scheduled to be held at Old DOHS Community Centre following the meeting.

On September 11, four advisers had a meeting with Begum Zia at her residence, a day after her release from sub jail.

Later on October 10, Adviser for Commerce Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman also held a one-to-one meeting with Begum Zia at her cantonment residence.

The BNP government dialogue on October 14 ended inconclusively on majority of issues. Both the sides, however, told reporters that more formal and informal dialogues between the two sides would be held to resolve the unsettled matters.

Meanwhile, the government will hold its third-round of dialogue with the Awami League (AL) at 3:00pm today to discuss some crucial issues.

Party source said the AL would place a set of demands including lifting of the state of emergency, withdrawal of all "false" charges against its president Sheikh Hasina, her unconditional release, and the deferment of the upazila elections before the government during the talks.

"We will point out the logic behind our demands," a central AL leader told The New Nation last night.

Terming the dialogue with the government very important, he said they hoped the differences on these issues will be resolved through discussion and all doubts centring the elections would be removed.

He urged the government and the EC to keep their doors open for dialogues until the Election Day.