DHAKA, March 10, 2023 (BSS) - Awami League (AL) General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said whether BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia would be able to do politics and join polls depends on the court's decision.

"Khaleda Zia is now out of jail on humanitarian ground. Her conviction was not withdrawn. Her jail sentence has been postponed on humanitarian ground," he told a function in the city.

The function was arranged on the occasion of the golden jubilee of Dhaka University's Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall and reunion of its Alumni Association. 

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, repeated that it is up to the court's decision whether Khaleda Zia will be able to do politics and join polls or not.

Claiming that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working to change the fates of the country's people, he said the countrymen have rejected the BNP because of looting public money.

About the BNP's movement, the AL general secretary said the BNP's movement has witnessed ebb while its leaders and workers have become senseless and are now talking nonsense. "People have rejected BNP," he added.

Responding to a statement of BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Quader said the AL never practises the politics of luxury but the BNP does "pocket politics".

Chaired by Mohsin Hall Alumni Association president Prof Dr Md Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan, the function was attended, among others, by DU vice-president Prof Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, former chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) Prof Abdul Mannan, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, MP, cabinet secretary Md Mahbub Hossain, DU pro-vice chancellor Prof Abdus Samad and its treasurer Prof Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed and Sommilito Sangskritik Jote Golam Quddus.