The business leaders at a meeting of the Council of Chamber Presidents (CCP), a platform of country's chambers of commerce and industry, decided to discuss the issue with the commerce minister soon.

If the talks with the commerce minister fail to resolve the issue, they would take up the matter with the prime minister, meeting sources said.

The meeting observed should the Board of Directors be empowered to remove the FBCCI president and vice- presidents, it will further marginalise the rights of general members who have already lost their right to direct vote for three key posts.

"Presidents of 62 chambers and representatives from five other chambers attended the meeting and decided to discuss the issue with the commerce minister as soon as possible," Abul Kashem Ahmed, general secretary of the CCP, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The meeting, with Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) first vice-president Kamaluddin Ahmed in the chair, was held at the FBCCI conference room in Dhaka. FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo however did not show up in the meeting.

The chamber leaders also felt the commerce ministry move will clear the way for government interference in the affairs of the trade bodies. "If the ministry order is implemented, a business leader will be removed from his position unless he acts in line with government desire in future," said a president of a chamber who attended the meeting.

The ministry on May 17 sent a letter to the FBCCI president asking him to take measures to incorporate a clause in Articles 14 of its Memorandum of Articles of Association that would enable the members of its board to remove the president or the vice-president for their conduct deemed detrimental to the interest of the apex trade body.

The meeting was held a day after some leading chambers and trade associations urged Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury to rescind the government order as it created widespread dissatisfaction among the business community.

The associations are Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI), Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh and Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB).

The government order came after the FBCCI president at a press conference on April 26 came up with a set of proposals to reform key areas including politics, now in a confrontational state. The proposals called for increasing the power of the president, reducing the number of ministries to 20, strengthening the Supreme Judicial Council, creation of two posts of deputy speaker -- one each from the treasury and opposition benches -- and formation of citizens' committees to curb corruption of police.

The business leaders at yesterday's meeting also viewed that frequent hartals and deteriorating law and order situation have made it difficult for them to survive. "It is the businesspeople who bear most of the negative impacts of hartals," another president of a chamber was quoted as telling the meeting.

Private news agency UNB adds: SM Nazrul Islam of Khulna, who is also a FBCCI director, blamed former president Yussuf Abdullah Haroon and Mohammad Ali, who was a vice-president at that time, for allowing the reforms, curtailing the right of general members to fill up the top posts through direct election.

"If you could have resisted it strongly at that time, the black indirect voting system would not have come. But you had moved in a way that enabled you to remain in the chair for three years instead of two years and the government took the advantage," he said.

As the government order awaits approval of the EGM (extraordinary general meeting) of the FBCCI on June 12, CCP President and FBCCI Vice-President Kamaluddin Ahmed urged the chamber presidents to express their sentiment unitedly.