In Bangladesh, the main opposition party the BNP and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami have called for a non-stop 36-hour country wide strike from Sunday morning. The strike has been called to protest against the government’s plan to scrap the non party -caretaker government system to hold elections following a Supreme Court verdict declaring it as illegal. In addition to this the parties also protesting against the 51 recommendations made in the report of the special parliamentary committee on constitution amendments submitted to the parliament. Declaring the party’s hartal programme at a press conference in Dhaka, BNP acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also asserted that the shutdown is being enforced to protest against the proposed constitutional amendments and other alleged failures of the government like high price of essential commodities, deterioration of law and order, gas-power-water crises and the stock market problems. In a separate press briefing Jamaat-E-Islami acting secretary-general A T M Azharul Islam alleged that the government was abolishing thecaretaker government system to prevent its 'certain debacle' in thenext general elections.