The Nagorik Committee 2006 (Citizens’ Body 2006), formed on March 30, by a group of civil society members, does not have any desire to take part in politics, its member-secretary Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya has said adding it wanted to mount pressure from outside and ensure a transparent, fair and corruption-free political process.

He was briefing journalists on the objectives of the committee in the city yesterday. Though he skipped a question whether they would participate in the election or in the caretaker government, he said that the Nagorik Committee has been thinking about how qualified candidates could be elected.

He said that the Election Commission’s role is not satisfactory and it has become an ineffective body. "The Election Commission never implements many of the laws like exposing the candidates’ information, while there is an unfair nexus among the political parties on this question. The civil society does not believe that a free and fair election is possible without reforms of the Election Commission and the electoral laws."

He underscored full implementation of a High Court order given in May last year that had directed the Election Commission (EC) to collect information on the candidates’ profession, source of income, their assets and assets of those who are dependent on them, loan, their criminal records, if any, academic qualifications etc, and publish those through the mass media.

Dr Debopriya said that the initiative of the Nagorik Committee is totally locally funded and the money they have spent so far is of the CPD and its associates and they would not take any donation in implementing this programme. But the committee will take assistance from other local individuals, institutions and expatriate Bangladeshis, he added.

The press briefing said that as part of a pre-election programme for 2006-07 that would continue till October, the committee has taken up a two-pronged strategy—framing a vision statement and evaluating policy, and having dialogue and creating awareness among people. The Nagorik Committee would sit again on April 24 to discuss the vision statement.

BDNEWS adds: Briefing journalists, Dr Debapriya explained the background, aims, objectives and plan for the organisation’s next course of action. The Nagorik Committee was formed with Prof Rehman Sobhan as head in March following a dialogue organised by the CPD, the Daily Star and the Prothom Alo. It held its first meeting Saturday to discuss activities and a realistic vision statement.

For the vision statement and evaluating policy, the committee will form a taskforce, evaluate overall policy, analyse the election manifestos of the political parties and attitude of the lawmakers on development policy.

As part of the effort to start a dialogue and create awareness, the committee would engage with political parties, the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Board of Revenue. They would also arrange special dialogue with the participation of expatriate Bangladeshis.

CPD officials, including Dr Fahmida Khatun, Fatema Yusuf, Dr Uttam Dev and Nayeem Hasan, were present at the briefing.