The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has asked that Union Parishads (UPs) constituted during the reign of ousted dictator Sheikh Hasina be cancelled.

The demand was made in response to a decision made at the party's top policymaking forum, the National Standing Committee, on Monday, according to a news release signed today by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Tarique Rahman, the BNP's Acting Chairman, presided over the meeting at the party's Gulshan political headquarters here, which he attended electronically from London.

According to the release, it will be impossible to hold a free, fair, and impartial national election while maintaining the Union Parishads functional, which were founded in farce during the fascist Sheikh Hasina's administration. Because the current Union Parishads was utilized as a weapon of the dictatorial administration in the past.

In another decision, the BNP standing committee expressed deep concern over the conflicts in the districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs).

It was said in the meeting that such conflicts are being unleashed as part of the longstanding conspiracy to disestablish the interim government following the ouster of the fascist Sheikh Hasina’s regime which is completely politically motivated, said the release.

These incidents are threat to the country’s independence and sovereignty. There is no scope to take the incident lightly, it said.

The BNP standing committee underscored the need for urgently calling a national convention with the participation of the country’s key political parties, concerned leaders of CHT districts and the stakeholders.

The committee urged the government to take measures to this end.