Dhaka: BNP senior leader Moudud Ahmed on Wednesday said the ‘developing country’ title for Bangladesh is pointless as it now lacks democracy.

‘There’s no democracy in the country while people have no right to speak up. But it’s being labeled as a developing country which is meaningless. Real development is not possible without democracy,’ he said.

Moudud came up with the comments while talking to reporters after a meeting between some foreign envoys stationed here and BNP senior leaders at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office, reports the UNB.

He alleged that the Prime Minister has been carrying out election campaign across the country and seeking vote for her party spending public money while BNP is being denied permission to hold any public rally.

The BNP leader also said seeking vote for ‘boat’ by holding rallies by the Prime minister is contrary to election rules.

Moudud, a BNP standing committee member, said the Prime Minister can seek vote for her party as the Awami League president with her own expense, not using public money. ‘But the opposition parties also must be given the same scope.’

He said though their party lodged complaints with the Election Commission over the Prime Minister’s unilateral election campaign with public money, it is not taking any action in this regard.

Earlier, BNP senior leaders briefed some foreign diplomats on the country’s overall situation and the development over its Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s case in which she was sentenced to five years’ jail.

The BNP leaders, led by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, sat with the diplomats around 4:10 pm at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.

Apart from Fakhrul, BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, chairperson’s advisers Reaz Rahman and Sabihuddin Ahmed were, among others, present at the meeting, said BNP chairperson’s media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

He said diplomats from around 15 countries, including the USA, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Kuwait and the EU, attended the nearly one-and-a-half-hour meeting.

This was the second meeting between BNP leaders and diplomats since Khaleda was sent to jail in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on February 8.

Five days after Khaleda was imprisoned, senior BNP leaders had a meeting with the diplomats of around 15 countries on March 13 at the same venue.