news details |
|
|
| Pranab going to Dhaka on Monday | | |
New Delhi | Feb 16
Amid pre-poll chaos in Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee goes to Dhaka Monday for a day to invite the country's leadership to the April 3-4 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit here.
With Bangladesh in turmoil and election dates yet to be announced, Chief Adviser to the caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, is likely to represent Bangladesh at the summit, reliable sources told IANS.
But this could create protocol problems, as Ahmed is the head of an army-backed interim government and performing prime ministerial functions. In that event, President Iajuddin Ahmed may instead come, the source added.
However, if an elected government is in place by April, which seems unlikely, the head of the new government will attend the summit.
Bangladesh, the current chair of the SAARC, is the last country Mukherjee is visiting as part of his mission to invite all SAARC heads of state or government for the regional summit.
He returns Monday evening for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri the next day.
A SAARC car rally that will criss-cross all countries of the region will kick off from Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh March 15.
Bangladesh has been under emergency since Jan 11 when Iajuddin Ahmed postponed parliamentary elections due for Jan 22 and appointed an interim administration headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed, a former central bank governor.
Since Fakhruddin Ahmed took over, security forces led by the army have arrested more than 100 politicians, including about a dozen former ministers.
Responding to these restive political developments, India has said that it expects early transfer of power to an elected government in Bangladesh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
