E.C. to seek further easing of emergency in B'desh

Dhaka, Sept 8 (PTI) Ahead of the third round of talks with political parties in the run-up to the December polls, the Bangladesh Election Commission has said it would ask the interim government to further ease the state of emergency.

"They (E.C.) assured us of securing government's permission to hold national councils and invite at least ten thousand delegates from across the country...which is marred by emergency rule," former Jatiya Party president H.M. Ershad told newspersons at the end of talks with the commission late Saturday.

E.C. officials substantiated Ershad's remarks saying the commission agreed to ask the caretaker government to relax the state of emergency allowing political parties to hold nationa councils to amend the constitution ahead of the parliamentary poll.

The emergency Power Rules (E.P.R.) do not allow political
parties to hold meetings of over two hundred people in open
space.

Major political parties including former Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina's Awami League and arch-rival Khaleda Zia's
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (B.N.P.) have been demanding the
withdrawal of emergency ahead of the polls saying a credible
election would be impossible under the emergency rules.

The Awami League is set to sit with the E.C. on the last
day of the dialogue next week while B.N.P. sources said they
would skip the talks with E.C. scheduled later Sunday to press
home their demand for the release of Zia on bail.

"We will take part in the talks only after our leader
Khaleda Zia is released. We will send a letter to the
commission explaining our point and ask it to drop plans to
hold local government polls ahead of the general election,"
party spokesman Moazzem Hossain Alal told newspersons.

Meanwhile, Zia, who is facing trial in several graft
charges, asked her lawyers to begin the procedure for securing
a bail for her in the two remaining cases as she was already
granted an interim bail by the High Court in two other cases.


Zia's high profile elder son Tarique Rahman was released
on bail earlier this week while her other detained younger son
Arafat Rahman Koko was sent abroad for treatment on court bail
last month.

Zia and her sons were arrested as part of a massive
anti-graft campaign launched by the interim administration
soon after its installation with crucial military support
after January 11, 2007 proclamation of the emergency.

The campaign also saw the arrest of Zia's rival Hasina,
who went abroad for medical treatment after her temporary
release on a government 'executive order'. PTI AR