BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir-File photo

DHAKA, May 8, 2025 (BSS) - BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today strongly condemned and protested against the malicious attempt to label BNP as anti-reform.

"A strong smear campaign is being run to label BNP as anti-reform," he told a discussion and doa mahfil at the Supreme Court Bar Hall  marking the 1st death anniversary of former Attorney General and BNP Vice Chairman AJ Mohammad Ali.

Nationalist Lawyers Forum President and BNP Vice-Chairman Advocate Zainul Abedin presided over the programme.

Fakhrul said BNP has been talking about reforms for a long time as it was the first to raise the demand for reforms in various state affairs including administration, judiciary and election commission in 2016 and also made proposals to take necessary measures in this regard.

At that time, party chief Begum Khaleda Zia spoke about various action plans to uphold the nationhood with the rainbow proposal, he said.

The BNP Secretary General said, "Our struggle was to bring back democracy, but we have not been able to bring it yet. New lists of reforms are being prepared every day. This is making the situation complicated. Some responsible people in the government are imposing new conditions related to reforms."

Mirza Fakhrul Islam lamented that propaganda is being spread mentioning that "BNP only wants elections, not reforms and BNP only wants power!"

"Yes, BNP wants power, BNP does politics for power. BNP wants to run the country by being elected by the people through elections," he added.

He said BNP wants to form a people's representative parliament and government, which will resolve the problems of the people.

"The country and democracy are the safest at the hands of BNP," he said.

The BNP Secretary General said that reforms are an ongoing process. It may take 5 to 10 years or even more to complete, he added.

"Then won't there be elections in 10 years?" he posed a question whether the country will run for 10 years with the bureaucrats.

"Ninety percent of the secretariat are allies of fascism. The country is currently running with them," he said.

The BNP Secretary General urged the interim government not to do anything that goes against the people.

Mirza Fakhrul urged the lawyers and said, "We have to speak up to build a new Bangladesh. Everyone has to be vigilant so that democracy is not disrupted and the country is not led in the wrong direction."

Paying deep respect to the memory of the late Attorney General AJ Mohammad Ali, he said, ‘Mohammad Ali was always uncompromising on policy issues. Whatever he said, he did. He was also very firm on the issue of professionalism."