Ershad dismisses Raushan's plea for postponement

Turning down Senior Presidium Member Raushan Ershad's demand for postponing Jatiya Party's national council, Chairman HM Ershad yesterday remained adamant on May 14, saying presidium members suggested the date following two deferments.

"We have rented the council venue and invited guests from different foreign missions to make the council successful. Under this circumstance, I have no alternative but to hold the council," he said in a statement sent to the media.

At the parliament media centre on Sunday, Leader of the Opposition Raushan demanded the postponement as well as immediate cancellation of the co-chairman and secretary general's appointment and refuted the former military dictator's statements, saying both were one-sided decisions.

Ershad also expressed dissatisfaction over Raushan's remark that the party was not anyone's own property or company, saying it "undermined" the registered political party regulated by its own charter.

Raushan has to remember that she is the chief of only one unit of the party -- the parliamentary party, he said.

On Raushan's demand for scrapping article 39 of the party's charter to make it democratic as it legitimises the chairman's authority to unilaterally appoint and remove members, Ershad said it was democratically included through a council.

"If anyone has any objection to the article, he or she can raise it at the national council, and it can give any verdict for dropping or keeping the article," he said.