CPA confce cancelled over security grounds

The high-profile Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference scheduled to be held in Dhaka from September 1 has been cancelled on security grounds after the terror attacks in the capital and Kishoreganj within a span of six days, insiders said.

Although the CPA Secretariat in the UK has yet to make an official announcement to that end, CPA top officials in Bangladesh last night confirmed it to The Daily Star.

The 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference was scheduled to be held on September 1-10.

Talking to The Daily Star at her office in parliament, Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, also the chairperson of the CPA, yesterday said five out of nine Commonwealth Regions have informed Bangladesh through the CPA Secretary General Office that their delegates would not be able to travel to Dhaka due to travel restriction imposed by their respective foreign offices.

“Those who intended to take part in the conference will not be entitled to get travel insurance due to travel advice,” the speaker added.

Holding of the conference was very important for Dhaka from the perspective that the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad speaker is the incumbent chairperson of the CPA.

Shirin Sharmin was the first ever Bangladeshi who was elected as the CPA chairperson in 2014.

In a gap of less than seven days, Awami League lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury also became the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) president bringing fame to the country.

CPA Secretary General Akbar Khan has recently emailed Shirin Sharmin informing her that at least five regions of CPA including Australia, British Islands and Mediterranean (BIM), Canada and Caribbean, and Americas and Atlantic (CAA) have informed him that the Commonwealth countries of these regions have advised their citizens not to travel to Bangladesh on non-essential purposes.

Africa, Asia, India, Pacific and Southeast Asia are the other regions of the CPA, which is a professional membership organisation linking all MPs across the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is composed of more than 180 branches formed in Legislatures in Commonwealth countries, which subscribe to parliamentary democracy.

Shirin Sharmin said she had a conversation with the CPA SG after the July 1 terror attack at a Gulshan café that took the lives of 17 foreigners over the arrangement of the CPA conference.

Parliament members, speakers and deputy speakers of several countries have even said it would not be possible for them to attend the conference in Dhaka even if the Bangladesh government gave them guarantee of all kinds of security.

Sources said the top officials of the CPA Bangladesh chapter had even hot debates with the CPA Secretariat officials over security issues.

“If you have already decided that you will not attend the conference in Dhaka, then what is the use of holding the conference? Rather, it would be better to hold a videoconference which would save both money and time,” a source quoted a top Bangladeshi CPA official as telling an official at the CPA Secretariat.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin said, “No-one in the country can predict in advance where terrorists will strike next. No country is safe at present.”

She added they had conveyed the message to the CPA Secretariat that Bangladesh was fully prepared to hold the conference even in case it would start the next day.

Hotel Radisson on the Airport Road was fixed as the venue of the main congregation of the conference, Sharmin said, adding, lodges of most of the foreign guests were fixed at hotels near the airport.

She however said no compensation would have to be paid to the respective hotels.

The speaker said she has already proposed to the CPA secretary general that if the conference was not held in Dhaka, Bangladesh was ready to organise the next year's conference.

Sharmin added the secretary general appreciated her proposal and said the CPA executive committee would take a decision on the matter.

She expressed the hope that the IPU conference scheduled to take place in April next year in Dhaka is likely to be held in due time.