Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said BNP has failed to plunge the December 30 national election into controversy even after knocking at the doors of its foreign friends.

“They (BNP) wrote letters to different countries to make the election questionable but their motive has gone in vain,” Quader, also the minister for Road Transport and Bridges, told reporters after visiting construction site of the second Kanchpur Bridge on Dhaka-Chattogram and Dhaka-Sylhet highways in Narayanganj’s Sonargaon upazila.

BNP also completely failed to ensure momentum of their anti-government movement as people did not take to the streets by responding their call, the Awami League leader said.

Replying to a query about BNP’s decision to refrain from participating in the upcoming upazila elections, the minister said no political parity can sustain without taking part in election.

He said the heads of different countries including UK and Switzerland welcomed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following the formation of government under her leadership for the fourth time.

Claiming that people would not throng the streets responding to the BNP’s call, Quader said BNP is engaged in negative politics and thus it will lose its foreign friends as well as the trust of the countrymen.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today said that the entire nation was stunned over the Supreme Court's judgement that rejected its Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s bail prayer in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

“We are disappointed and aggrieved over the rejection of the bail petition of Khaleda Zia. The entire nation was stunned as well,” Fakhrul came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after a meeting at the party chief Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office in Dhaka this evening.

People have expected that their leader (Khaleda) would get justice from the court but she was unfortunately denied by the court, the BNP leader said.

Nationwide demo Sunday   

As part of the programme to free Khaleda Zia from jail, BNP will stage a demonstration and bring out processions across the country to press home their demand.

Leaders and activists of the party will hold rally and bring out processions at thana-level headquarters across Dhaka on the day, Fakhrul said.      

BNP will also come up with next course of programme immediately to ensure release of Khaleda Zia from jail, the party secretary general said.

“We strongly believe that the people with their enthusiastic participation in the protest programme would force the government to cancel result of the December 30 national election and to hold a fresh election under a nonparty and neutral government and election commission,” he said.

Meanwhile, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said the government has nothing to do with Khaleda Zia's corruption case.

"The judiciary is enjoying full freedom under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rule. The case against Khaleda Zia is a corruption case. So, there's nothing to do by the government with it," Quader, also road, transport and bridges minister, told journalists while speaking at the triennial council of Kurigram district Awami League in Kurigram.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today alleged that people do not have the right to vote in the country.

The spirit of liberation war was to establish a democratic society but unfortunately, the democracy has completely disappeared from the country 49 years after the liberation war, Fakhrul said.

Fakhrul was talking to journalists this morning after placing wreaths at the National Memorial in Savar to pay tributes to the martyrs of the Liberation War marking the 49th Victory Day.

Fakhrul vowed to restore democracy by uniting people through the sprit of liberation and free from BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from jail.

Khaleda Zia was elected prime minister for three times but she was kept in jail mercilessly and oppressively, he said.

BNP Standing Committee Members Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain and Abdul Moyeen Khan and party joint secretary general Khairul Kabir Khokon, among others, were present at that time.

The High Court yesterday rejected a writ petition that had challenged the legality of oath taking of the lawmakers elected in the December 30 polls.

A HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order considering that petition was not filed properly.

After the order, lawmakers elected in the 11th parliamentary polls have no bar to perform their duties, said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.

Also read: HC order on petition against oath-taking of MPs today

On January 14, advocate Taherul Islam Tawhid filed the petition praying for a rule on the Election Commission and the government to explain why the oath taking should not be declared illegal.

The lawyer also sought necessary HC orders on the authorities concerned to prevent the new lawmakers from discharging their functions.

Meanwhile, petitioner's lawyer barrister AM Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that they would file a fresh writ petition with the HC challenging the same issue.

The tenure of the 10th parliament will expire on January 28 and new lawmakers will take charge on January 30.