BNP walks out of National Consensus Commission meeting

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) staged a walkout during the 20th day of second-phase talks with the National Consensus Commission, held on Monday at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

Party leaders made the decision to leave at the very beginning of the meeting, citing dissatisfaction with the direction and outcomes of the ongoing discussions with the Commission and other political parties.

Earlier in the session, National Consensus Commission Vice-Chairman Professor Dr. Ali Riaz said that unresolved issues would be the focus of the day’s discussions. He noted that while significant progress had been made on several key topics, more work was needed to reach full agreement.

“The initial proposals from the Commission have been revised multiple times to help political parties come to a consensus. We’ve reached agreement on 12 points, and efforts are ongoing to resolve the remaining issues,” said Dr. Riaz. “Our goal is to create a historic document that will guide Bangladesh’s political future and ensure we don’t return to past instability.”

This is not the first disruption in the dialogue process. On July 23, three political parties, including the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), staged a symbolic 10-minute walkout during another session of the Commission. The protest was in response to a reported attack by law enforcement on students and parents demonstrating at Milestone School and College in Uttara, following a plane crash incident.

CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince initiated the protest, with support from JASAD Standing Committee member Mushtaq Hossain and BASAD General Secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz.

The National Consensus Commission was formed to build broad-based political agreement on key national issues. However, the recent walkouts underscore ongoing tensions and challenges in achieving full-party consensus.