Chief adviser Professor Mohammad Yunus will hold an all-party meeting on Monday.
The meeting, convened in his capacity as the chief of the National Consensus Commission, will be held at the Foreign Service Academy on Bayley Road in the capital.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam and the National Citizen Party on Saturday confirmed New Age that they received official invitations to participate in the meeting.
According to the party leaders, the second phase of discussions on reforms and election would formally be inaugurated on the day.
Against the backdrop of recent political unrest, marked by frequent street protests and infighting among parties, the chief adviser held meetings with different political parties in phases in May 24- 25 to address the crisis.
During the meetings, political parties expressed support for the chief adviser but held firm to their own demands. The BNP pushed for elections by December, while Jamaat and the National Citizen Party called for reforms, visible progress in justice and then elections within the timeline announced by the government.
Other political parties also demanded a clear road map for the next national election, a charter for consensus-based reforms and to ensure visible progress in the trial of the July uprising killings.
Referring to the chief advisor’s second round meeting, BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed said that they were getting the impression that there was no shortage of formalities and discussions, but no real progress was being made on actual work.
Speaking at a discussion organised by Jatiyatabadi Krishak Dal at the Institution of Diploma Engineers auditorium in Dhaka to mark the 44th death anniversary of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, he mocked the repeated ceremonial inaugurations of political dialogue initiated by the chief adviser.
Salahuddin questioned the effectiveness of the ongoing reform process, saying, ‘There is no shortage of discussions, but no sign of real action’.
‘Again, the second phase of the dialogue will be ceremonially inaugurated. How many times does something need to be inaugurated? You inaugurated the first phase, now the second, and in the third, you will combine it all again. This is how you are dangling the illusion of reform in front of us,’ he said.
