Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance leaders on Monday called on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government to implement the verdict of the February 12 national referendum in favour of the July National Charter.

Otherwise, the alliance would launch countrywide movement programmes to compel the government to implement the referendum verdict, the leaders warned at a seminar organised by the alliance.

The seminar on implementing the referendum verdict was held at the Diploma Engineers’ Institution in the capital’s Kakrail area.

Alliance leaders claimed that about 70 per cent of voters cast ‘yes’ votes in the referendum in favour of the July National Charter, but the BNP-led government was trying to avoid the people’s verdict.

Addressing the event, leader of the opposition in parliament and Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman alleged that the BNP-led government was moving towards ruling the country in a fascist manner after securing a two-thirds majority in the February 12 Jatiya Sangsad elections, held simultaneously with the national referendum.

Chief whip of the opposition in parliament and National Citizen Party convener Nahid Islam said that the BNP-led government was avoiding implementation of the reform proposals by ignoring the referendum verdict.

He called on the BNP to immediately form a parliamentary reform council and implement the proposals outlined in the July National Charter.

Jamaat secretary general Mia Golam Parwar said that the BNP had created the current political crisis and must take the initiative to resolve it.

Liberal Democratic Party chairman Oli Ahmed said that youths had sacrificed their lives in the July uprising to establish a discrimination-free democratic country. The LDP is also a partner of the Jamaat-led alliance.

Presenting the keynote paper at the seminar, lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir said that the BNP could not avoid responsibility for implementing the referendum verdict, as it had supported the initiative and urged voters to cast ‘yes’ votes.

The seminar, presided over by Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish amir Mamunul Haque, was also addressed, among others,  by Jamaat joint secretary general and alliance coordinator Hamidur Rahman, NCP central leader Sarwer Tushar, and the alliance leaders Anwarul Islam, and Rashed Prodhan.