Polls under impartial govt: Khosru

The BNP says no government, including its own, has survived unless they came to power through polls under an 'impartial government'. BNP chairperson's adviser and former Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, while speaking at a bdnews24.com-organised roundtable, said the caretaker dispensation conducting national polls since 1996 was set up through a 'national consensus'. "The Awami League asked for it, agitated for it and BNP accepted it. All parties agreed to the arrangement and that is how it became law after a bill was placed," said Chowdhury. "So if it has to go now, it cannot be abrogated unilaterally as the Awami League has done. The caretaker system can go only if there is a national consensus." The BNP leader however said he was not using the word 'caretaker' -- rather he would insist on the term 'impartial'.