Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday took part in the National Consensus Commission (NCC) initiated second round of talks with political parties started on Tuesday.
The talks aim to finalize recommendations submitted by various reform commissions and to prepare the “July Charter”.
Three representatives of Jamaat-e-Islami – Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher, and Assis-tant Secretaries General Rafiqul Islam Khan and Hamidur Rahman Azad – participated in the third meet-ing of second round of talks in the capital’s Foreign Services Academy.
On the first day of the second round, they had, however, refrained from joining the meeting. This round of discussion is scheduled to conclude today.
In his opening remarks, the commission’s vice-chairman, Professor Ali Riaz, said, “The discussions that have not been completed will be taken up again in next week’s discussions. We will request the political parties to help moving the discussions forward.”
Laying emphasis on completion of the process of preparing the national charter by July, he said, “We have a shortage of time, which the political parties should keep in their mind.”
Against the backdrop of Jamaat’s absence, Ali Riaz yesterday in his closing remark said that the commis-sion remains committed to engaging all parties and will maintain communication to ensure their contin-ued participation.
“We have reached out to them (Jamaat-e-Islami), and though they may not be able to attend yesterday (Tuesday)), we hope they or their representatives will join us today (Wednesday),” he said.
Commission members Justice Emdadul Haque, Badiul Alam Majumder, Ayub Mia, Md. Iftek-haruzzaman and Safar Raj Hossain and Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Monir Haider were pre-sent.
In addition, representatives of 30 political parties, including BNP Standing Committee member Sala-huddin Ahmed, National Citizens Party (NCP) convener Nahid Islam, and Gonosanghati Andolon Chief Coordinator Jonayed Saki, also joined the meeting.
