'Election train' will not wait for anyone: Hasan

Information and Broadcasting Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud today said the "train of upcoming election" would not wait for anyone and the polls will be held on time.
 
"In fact, BNP wants to foil the election process. They were failed in 2014. But the people will resist them with iron hand if they try to foil the next elections as most of the countrymen support Awami League. We [Awami League] will not also sit down idle," he said while replying to a query after attending the first anniversary of the 'Dainik Bangla' which was closed in 1997 and was later revived on 4 September last year, at a hotel in the city's Gulshan area.
 
The newspaper publisher and founder chairman of the Canadian University of Bangladesh Dr Chowdhury Nafiz Sarafat, acting editor Chowdhury Jafarullah Sharafat and president of Bangladesh Private University Association and Insurance Association Sheikh Kabir Hossain, among others, were present there.
 
Dr Hasan said the train of the next elections would wait for none like 2014 and 2018 polls.
 
The minister hoped that BNP will sit in the train of polls in the upcoming election. The polls will be held on time whether they take part or not, he continued.
 
He said the main issue is whether the countrymen would take part in the polls or not. The elections will be acceptable if the masses take part in the polls enormously, he added.
 
He hoped that the countrymen would take part in the upcoming general elections like city corporations polls where BNP didn't take part.
 
Replying to another query over a comment of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on the Rohingya issue, the information minister said BNP couldn't send back Rohingya who came during BNP's tenure. The Rohingyas entered in Bangladesh in 1976-1977. Even, they are now Bangladeshi citizens, he added.
 
He said the Rohingyas entered in 1991-1992 when Begum Khaleda Zia was the prime minister. Many of them are staying in different places in the Chattogram region, he added.
 
In fact, Dr Hasan said, BNP doesn't want any solution to the Rohingya crisis. "We are trying diplomatically to solve it. And there are many progresses. I hope it will be solved," he added.
 
Earlier in the function, the information minister congratulated all members of the daily, its readers and patrons.
 
He said the country is marching ahead indomitably under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The successes of the state and the people should be published in mass media, he added.
 
Later, Dr Hasan cut a cake and handed over a crest to acting editor of the daily Chowdhury Jafarullah Sharafat marking his 40 years anniversary as a sports commentator.