Awami League joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif on Saturday said the ruling party would initiate a move for a dialogue to work out a formula for an election-time interim government if the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party responded positively.
Hanif, however, said that the chances for the planned dialogue would be diminish if the BNP kept on insisting that they would not go to the polls without a caretaker government.
The BNP already rejected the prime minister’s proposal for formation of a ‘small cabinet’ to oversee the next general elections. Sheikh Hasina, in an interview with the BBC in London, proposed formation of a ‘small cabinet’ in which BNP representatives might be inducted before the next parliamentary polls.
Addressing ‘meet the reporters’ organised by Dhaka Reporters Unity, Hanif hoped that the BNP would change its stance and accept the prime minister’s proposal.  ‘The BNP is opposing the proposal for an election-time small cabinet because it does not have a clear idea about the proposition,’ he added.
‘They (BNP) rejected the proposal because I think they are yet to realise the reality. They would change the stance when they would realise the ground reality.’ He urged the opposition parties to place a ‘formula’ for an interim government if they have any. ‘The government would accept if your proposals are logical,’ he added.
About the ongoing trials of the crimes against humanity committed during the war of independence in 1971, Hanif hoped that the trial of ‘top war criminals’ would be completed before the present government serves out though the process was long. The trial of the rest of the ‘war criminals’ would continue, he added.
Asked about the ‘failures’ of the government in different sectors, he said that the AL-led government had no failures in running the state.
Asked what the government had done so far to trace BNP leader M Ilias Ali and his chauffeur, Hanif said, ‘It is very difficult to trace a victim of enforced disappearance in a country with a large population. But our government is trying to find them out.’
About Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, the AL leader said, ‘A Nobel laureate is not above the laws. The government will look into whether Grameen Bank’s microcredit had proved ‘disastrous’ for the people.
Hanif said that the government wanted to let the countrymen know if there had been any ‘irregularities’ with the Tk 29,000 crore of 86 lakh people.