BNP will not give nomination to loan defaulters, Fakhrul promises

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has promised that his party will be cautious and will not give nomination to any loan defaulter in the national election.

The BNP secretary general made the remark while speaking at a symposium titled “White Paper and Thereafter: Economic Management, Reforms and National Budget” at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital on Saturday (18 January).

“We are committed to people that we will surely try to ensure that defaulters do not get nominations. We will be very careful in this regard,” he said.

Fakhrul said this in responding to a question from noted economist Prof Rehman Sobhan, who asked whether the BNP would support the proposition that loan defaulters should be barred from contesting elections to curb the influence of money and muscle power.

He said that his party is working on a future course of action to move the country forward, taking lessons from past experiences.

“Our democratic institutions were destroyed during the Awami League government. We believe in institutional settlement. What we need most now is to fix the institutions. Enough is enough. Let's truly build Bangladesh as per our dreams and the desires of the people”, he said.

In reply to a question about whether their party wants the fascist political party Awami League to participate in the election, Fakhrul said it is the people of the country who will decide on this matter. “As a political party, we're not willing to make a decision on it.”