DHAKA: BNP Standing Committee member Shamsul Islam Friday predicted the present government will not last its five-year term as people got “fed-up” with its 18-month rule.

Islam made the comment at a discussion arranged by Centre for Democracy and Peace Studies at the Jatiya Press Club billed “ Arrest and remand scare: Bangladesh context”.

The former information minister observed the behaviour of the ruling Awami League speaks the way the party had tortured people in the past. “The repression by Awami League is nothing new. They are doing so continuously,” he said.

About the human chain of BNP on July 7, Islam said the government betrayed its weakness through obstructing the peaceful human-chain programme.

“The best example of the government’s weakness is it cannot check activities of its student wing, Chhatra League,” the BNP leader told his audience.

He said they would hope the government would get its Achilles’ heel healed and work for people’s well-being. “Otherwise, people will choose alternative way.”

With Alamgir Mohiuddin, Editor of the daily Nayadiganta, in the chair, the discussion meeting was also addressed, among others, by adviser to the BNP Chairperson Advocate Ahmed Azam Khan, journalist Sadek Khan and BFUJ Secretary-General Ruhul Amin Gazi.

BDST/ 1535, JULY 9, 2010