NCP today held a a meeting with the National Consensus Commission (NCC) at LD Hall of the national parliament. Photo: PID

DHAKA, April 19, 2025 (BSS) - National Citizen Party (NCP), emerged following the ouster of fascist Sheikh Hasina, today urged the interim government to hold the national election after completing necessary reforms and trials of the killings during the 2024 July uprising.

The NCP leaders, however, reiterated that they were not in favor of delaying the elections too.

The interim government took charge of the government with student-masses' mandate, said NCP member secretary Akhter Hossen while speaking to journalists during a session break of a meeting with the National Consensus Commission (NCC) at LD Hall of the national parliament today.

The interim government must ensure justice for the July killings and complete necessary state reforms first and hold the election shortly afterwards, Akhter said, adding they will give adequate time to finish the state reforms.

Commenting on the meeting outcomes, he said, "We have discussed only constitutional reforms. We will discuss reforms in judiciary, public administration and anti-corruption commission (ACC)."

During the meeting, the NCP delegation consisting of convener Nahid Islam, member secretary Akhter Hossen, joint convener Sarwar Tushar, senior joint convener Samantha Sharmin, chief organizer (southern region) Hasnat Abdullah and chief coordinator Nasiruddin Patwari, came up with their views on reports of reform commissions.

"We talked about a balanced constitution with basic reforms as it is impossible to practice democracy under the existing constitution," Akhter said, noting the current constitution awards the prime minister with absolute power and allows the government to be autocratic.

He demanded rewriting of the constitution.

Hasnat Abdullah said, "We have agreed on 129 out of 166 reform proposals of the commission. In some cases, we have observations."

He said they mainly focused on three issues -- protection of citizens, peaceful transfer of power and Article-17 that obstructs voices of masses in the name of parliament's stability.

NCC vice chairman Prof Ali Riaz, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Dr. Badiul Alam Majumder and special assistant to the chief adviser Monir Haider attended the meeting on the commission's side.