Dhaka: Bangladesh's interim government has convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet of advisory council today as ex-premier Khaleda Zia's BNP has set a 48-hour ultimatum for lifting the state of emergency and defer election date as pre-conditions for their participation in the polls.

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed called the meeting to "discuss and review the situation" arisen out of the BNP s ultimatum while he talked to a few advisers about the issue over the telephone last night, a government source said. "He is aware of the latest situation and wants to discuss it with the panel of advisers negotiating with political parties," he said.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Zia yesterday set the 48-hour ultimatum. "BNP and the four-party alliance are declaring that they will contest in the upcoming elections if the government meets this four-point demand within the next 48 hours," she said emerging from a meeting of her BNP-led four-party alliance late last night.

"We hope now the government, showing its good intentions, will create a congenial atmosphere for the polls... Otherwise the Election Commission and the government will be held responsible for the unstable situation regarding the election," she said. The other demands included scrapping certain clauses of the recently amended Representation of People Order (RPO) that empowers the election commission to scrap candidacies during polls on the basis of complaints and deferring the local government elections at least one month from the national elections, due to be held soon after the general elections.

Source : PTI