Khaleda Zia warns of enforcing nonstop hartal and blockade of roads-railways if the caretaker government is not restored; BNP comes out with three proposals as alternative to caretaker government; Clarification sought from India deployment of Drone; Bangl
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    • According to reports, Bangladesh Nationalist Party has warned of enforcing nonstop hartal and blockade of roads-railways across the country after her present programme of rallies in all the seven divisions ends in the middle of next month if the prime minister does not restore the caretaker government system by that time.1

    Meanwhile, reports noted that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has drafted three models of a polls-time government with a view to resolving the ongoing political crisis over the holding of a free and fair general election. All the three models propose picking a neutral and non-partisan eminent citizen for the post of chief adviser of the interim government. The ruling Awami League and the BNP will choose the chief adviser on consensus and s/he will be elected to parliament through a by-election in a constituency. He/she will lead a body of 10 technocrat advisers. About nominating the advisers, the three models suggest three options. One option is that the Awami League (AL) and the BNP will select five neutral and non-partisan dignitaries each for appointment as advisers. Another proposal says the AL will nominate five of its advisory council members and BNP chief Khaleda Zia will nominate five of her advisers to be appointed advisers. The other model suggests picking five ministers from the present cabinet led by Sheikh Hasina and another five from Khaleda Zia’s past cabinet to be made advisers of the interim government. BNP will not place the proposals in parliament. Instead, it will announce them through a press conference, a BNP source said. 2

    In other developments, reports noted that Dhaka has sought clarification from New Delhi regarding India’s plan to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, along its border with Bangladesh. 3 However, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran said that the Indian government has not yet decided to deploy drones along the Indo-Bangla border, it is a merely media report. 4

    Reports noted that Bangladesh has moved up eight notches to 110th in this year’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), compared with last year’s 118th. Improvement in two key areas—macro-economic management and infrastructure—helped the country make progress in the index for 2013-14, according to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), an annual publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF). 5

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