The interim government will not formulate the July Proclamation but will facilitate creating consensus among political parties and stakeholders on the draft prepared by the anti-discrimination student body, an adviser says on their latest stance.
In the latest disclosure, made Thursday, government focus also shifted to local elections while national polls looked tied to national consensus on the reforms kicked off following the July-August uprising.
Mahfuj Alam, adviser to the interim government, dropped such hints at a press briefing organised by the Chief Adviser's Press Wing.
He said there was a consensus on the context part of the proclamation among the stakeholders but there were differences of opinion on the part containing future objectives.
"So, we will start a dialogue next week with the political parties and the stakeholders so that a consensus can be made," he said, adding that making the proclamation, scheduled for January 15, might be deferred by a couple of days.
The student-turned government functionary said the role of all the parties, groups and individuals will be incorporated into the proclamation.
The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the student platform that spearheaded the 'July Revolution', has drafted the proclamation along their lines of sweeping reforms for a 'repair of the state'.
Responding to another question, he said the government wants to hold local elections as it feels that local-government institutions like the city corporations could not delivery services properly under the leadership of government-appointed administrators.
To a question as to whether the Police and Ansar forces are prepared now to handle law-and-order situation during the local-government elections, the adviser said the government is taking preparation for elections but it does not mean that the elections will be held after three months.
"The role of the police, who unleashed brutality on people during the movement, is well-known to everybody. But we have initiated process to reform police and several recommendations are on the table," he said, mentioning that both police and ansar forces will be reformed.
The adviser, who was a key leader of the July Movement that unseated the past government, told another questioner that the timeline for the general election hinges on the areas of reform and these areas will be determined by the political parties and stakeholders.
He also announced that the government will take stern action against those who will be involved in attacks on mazars, sufi shrines and spiritual-music programmes.
"Since assumption of power by the interim government, there had been some incidents, and we are sorry for that. But from now on, none who would commit such act will be spared," the adviser said.
Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to the CA, told the journalist at the briefing that the CA asked the authorities concerned to take quick steps to ease the traffic situations in Dhaka city and to address the water-logging problems facing Chittagong city.
He assured by February, all the students would get their printed textbooks. He mentioned that the PDF versions of the text books were made available from January 1 so that anybody can read the textbooks.
He also reminded that since 2010, textbook distribution could not be completed by January in the country.
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