BNP to wait to get rally permission

Dhaka: BNP senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Sunday said they will wait until the last moment for permission to hold their planned rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Monday seeking their party Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s release from jail.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, he also hoped that good sense will prevail upon the government to finally give them permission for the rally.

‘BNP has taken all the necessary preparations for the rally. Police are yet to inform us anything about the permission. They had given permission at night for our rallies in the past. So we’ll wait until the last moment and we’ll be able to make our rally a success whenever we get permission,’ Rizvi said.

He said their party’s four-member delegation went to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in the morning, but they were neither given permission nor denied it.

The BNP leader said there is no reason to deny their party permission as they are holding their programmes peacefully. ‘We’d a rally in Khulna yesterday (Saturday),and there was no violence and problem.’

Referring to recent meetings of the ruling Awami League, Workers Party and Jatiya Party at Suhrawardy Udyan, he said BNP also has the right to get permission for holding its programme at the same venue.

‘Is the Awami League-led grand alliance owner of the Suhrawardy Udyan that they’ll give permission whoever they want? The government is showing such an attitude as it considers the country as its paternal property,’ he said.

Rizvi said BNP and all other parties have the equal right to stage rallies at Suhrawardy Udyan as it is a state property.

He said the country’s people will once again realise how the government is strangulating democracy if BNP is not allowed to hold its rally on Monday.

Sought his comment on the delay in passing the apex court’s order on Khaleda’s bail petition, Rizvi said, ‘We don’t want to give any reaction to it now as the High Court is going to deliver its order on Monday. We’ll come up with our reaction after examining the order.’