Businesses to seek views of others

Top business leaders will seek opinions from different professionals before launching formal dialogues with political leaders, demanding a ban on hartal that causes disruption to economic activities.
Business leaders, particularly former and incumbent presidents of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), have already held four meetings to prepare a set of guidelines for the discussion with political leaders.
They will sit again between May 12 and 15, said FBCCI president AK Azad adding that this time they would not only seek opinions from businessmen but also ask other professionals about their view about hartal.
The meeting with teachers, workers, members from the civil society, other chambers and trade bodies was scheduled to be held much earlier but was then postponed as former FBCCI presidents are now staying abroad.
The demand for banning hartal came after the main opposition enforced five dawn-to-dusk general strikes in the last nine days of April, which caused significant disruption to the economy. BNP had called hartals in protest at its organising secretary and former lawmaker M Ilias Ali going missing around midnight of April 17.
“We will meet the government and the opposition party. We want an effective dialogue with the political leaders and this is why we want opinions from a cross section of people,” the FBCCI chairman said.
Former FBCCI bosses demanded that the political leaders avoid hartal for greater interest of the economy. The group held the previous meeting at Westin Hotel in Dhaka on May 2.
Mahbubur Rahman, Salman F Rahman, Abul Kashem, Akram Hossain, Annisul Huq and Mir Nasir Hossin, among other former presidents of FBCCI, were present at the meeting. Former FBCCI administrator Syed Manzur Elahi was also present there.
On the following day, the FBCCI in its general council meeting demanded that a law be enacted to ban hartal as it negatively impacts on the economy.
Annisul Huq, another former FBCCI president and one of the initiators of the dialogue, said two or three former top leaders of the chamber would be staying abroad in the next few days.
“So, we cannot arrange for a meeting before May 12,” he said. “We will meet political leaders, but before that we will prepare a strategic plan for the dialogue,” he added.