Failure to free Khaleda unfortunate for BNP: Fakhrul

Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said that it was unfortunate for the party that they could not free their chairperson Khaleda Zia though she was jailed in a false case out of political vengeance.

The BNP leader made the comment while addressing a meeting commemorating Zia Parishad founding chairman and also BNP chairperson’s adviser Kabir Murad at National Press Club in Dhaka.

‘Khaleda Zia is kept in jail in a false case. It unfortunate we could not free her. We know that she is in jail not for legal reasons but for political reasons,’ he said.

He referred to the February 25, 2019 rule of an international arbitration tribunal that decided that the gas production contracts between the previous BNP government and the Canadian company Niko were ‘not procured through corruption’. He said that the tribunal, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, found that there was no corruption in Niko deal.

He said that the international tribunal had found Khaleda Zia and others, who were implicated in the case, innocent.

All the three tribunal members — Michael E Schneider (president of the tribunal) appointed by both parties, Professor Campbell McLachlan QC appointed by the Bangladesh side, and Professor Jan Paulsson appointed by Niko – are foreigners, he said.

He alleged that the Bangladesh government had created pressure on the tribunal for not publishing their rule. The information was published in an international media recently.

Fakhrul alleged that the government, out of political vengeance, had lodged case against Khaleda and others alleging graft in Niko deal by concealing the international tribunal’s decision.

‘All the cases like this are on false allegation. BNP leaders including Tarique Rahman are not involved in said corruption,’ he said and added that a judge had to flee the country as he found Tarique innocent in a case.

He alleged that the government had totally controlling the judiciary and using it to introduce and establish a single-party rule in the country.

The BNP leader alleged that familyocracy was going on within the ruling Awami League.

‘They had destroyed the constitution and completed all the arrangement to take the country under a single-party rule. Everything here is going to be controlled by one person, one family,’ he said.

‘You will understand these if you notice who were given nomination [in the elections] and who are made chiefs of [their front] organisations,’ he said apparently meaning AL’s nomination to Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and making his brother Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash as Juba League president.

Both Taposh and Parash are nephews of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

He alleged that the government had destroyed all the institutions of the country and that the government had been appointing people as vice-chancellors in public universities having poor academic background on political consideration.

Recruitment of teachers in universities and in Bangladesh Civil Service now also taking place on political consideration to bring all these in the ruling party’s grip, he said.

He said that the BNP had been participating the Dhaka city mayoral elections as a part of movement to go to people.

He said that they would defeat the government by involving people and would realise their demand of a new election under a neutral government and neutral election commission.

Presided over by Zia Parishad senior vice-chairman M Salimullah Khan, the commemoration was also addressed, among others, by BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and vice-chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net