Fakhrul criticises quota system as contrary to liberation war ideals

The quota system is contrary to the spirit of the liberation war which pledged to build a non-discriminatory nation and a merit-based society, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said today (6 July).

"In our declaration of independence, the main commitment of the liberation war was to ensure equality, human dignity, and social justice, and to build a non-discriminatory nation. Additionally, the quota system in first, second, third, and fourth class government jobs cannot be conducive to the development of talents," he said, extending the party's support for the quota reinstatement protest during a press conference at the BNP Chairperson's Gulshan office this afternoon.

The BNP today extended its full support for the students' protest calling for the reinstatement of the notification cancelling the quota in first and second-class government jobs while urging quota reform in all types of jobs. The political party also supported the public university teachers in their call for the withdrawal of the Prottoy pension scheme.

In the press conference, the BNP Secretary General stated that all citizens are constitutionally and legally equal. However, as per Articles 28 (4) and 29 (3) of the Constitution, some reservations may be made as an exception for women, backward sections of citizens, genuine freedom fighters, and the physically challenged.

"Maintaining a 56% quota system makes it almost impossible to survive as a nation in a technology and talent-driven world," Mirza Fakhrul said.

"Students have been protesting on the streets for the past few days against the High Court's order to abolish the quota system in recruitment to government jobs. The authoritarian government is using the judiciary to suppress the legitimate demands of the students. It is an old strategy to stifle just movements of people," he added.

Underscoring full support for the demand of the students, he noted that there is no alternative to establishing a merit-based state system to survive in the global system based on technology and knowledge in the 21st century.

"Therefore, we agree with the fair and logical demands of the quota reform movement of the student society," he said.

Expressing concern over the recent cancellation of all educational programmes and activities by teachers and employees of all public universities, Fakhrul described the resulting stalemate in higher education institutions as a very worrying situation for the nation.

He said, "This [Prottoy scheme] in reality is opening another way for the bankrupt government to commit corruption. Since the country's economy is in an extremely critical state, they want to extract money from teachers along with people from other sectors."

"Amid the financial woes, introducing the universal pension scheme is a mere strategy to mend the ailing economy," he said, labelling Prottoy as "another way of the government to loot the people."

"The illegal government wants to introduce this scheme in an arbitrary manner without any discussion with about 50,000 teachers and employees in the public universities. But in the paragraph containing the purpose and reasons of this law, it is mentioned as optional. In this context, the movement and protest initiated by the teachers' associations are certainly logical and worth every support," Fakhrul said.

He also criticised the nearly empty state treasury and the near-collapse of the banking sector, accusing the government of attempting to empty people's pockets through schemes like Prottoy, under the guise of development.

"People are rejecting all such schemes, including the so-called pension scheme, which is politically motivated and unethical. We support this logical movement of university teachers and employees and call for the immediate withdrawal of this pension scheme," Fakhrul added.