Former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Dr Emajuddin Ahmed said Saturday that the government would be compelled to hold national elections within the next three months if the city corporation polls are held in a free and fair manner.
"If the city corporation elections are free and fair, if the people could express their views through ballots and if the BNP wins the polls, then the government will be compelled to hold national election within three months," he said at a discussion at the National Press Club.
"We want to read the daily Amar Desh. We want release of Mahmudur Rahman", he said at the discussion that marked two years of imprisonment of the editor and closure of the newspaper. The Amar Desh Paribar organised the discussion.
Dr Ahmed, who is also the convenor of Soto Nagorik Committee, said, "Those who want to stay in power by force are always weak because they don't have earth beneath their feet. And if there is no earth under the feet, then s/he cannot stand up. They want to remain in power by force. But such futile moves to cling to power will one day crumble one day".
The eminent political analysts said autocracy and free media never go side by side. The autocrat always tries to strangulate freedom of media.
He described acting editor of Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman as a real patriot and a big asset of Bangladesh. He bears the quality to express the truth which is vital for improved life, he added.
Acting convenor of Sommilito Peshajibi Parishad Ruhul Amin Gazi said, "There is no other alternative but to unseat the government'.
President of one faction of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Showkat Mahmud, "Today owners of the media should also be involved in the movement for release of Mahmudur Rahman. Otherwise, they might also face the same fate if the government changes.
President of Dhaka Union of Journalists poet Abdul Hai Sikder moderated the discussion which was addressed among others by Sukamal Barua, general secretary of the BFUJ, M. A. Aziz, writer Farhad Mazhar and general secretary of the DUJ Jahangir Alam Prodhan and its former president Abdur Shahid.
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