Hasina slams BNP for inducting children of war criminals, people with vested interests in new committee

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has questioned the composition of the BNP’s new committees and the induction of family members of war criminals in it.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 August 2016, 05:40 PM
Updated : 9 August 2016, 09:48 AM

During a programme at Ganabhaban on Monday, the Awami League chief said Khaleda Zia has betrayed her ‘disregard for morality’ by ‘offering posts to those with vested interest by neglecting the party’s constitution’.

On Saturday, the BNP unveiled its new National Standing Committee, 73-strong Advisory Council and 502-strong Executive Committee, all approved by the BNP chairperson.

The sons of executed war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Alim, who died in jail after being imprisoned until death, were given posts in one of the committees.

Mentioning BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s initiatives to politically rehabilitate war criminals, Hasina said, "Now his family is also doing the same thing.”

“The BNP has constituted its committee with (children of) those who were tried and executed as war criminals. This is nothing short of cheating with the entire nation, the three million martyrs, and 200,000 mother and sisters who lost their honour during the Liberation War.”

Khaleda had made two leaders of the Jamaat ministers in her Cabinet. Both former ministers’ punishments for 1971 war crimes have already been carried out.

Hasina also came down hard Khaleda’s decision to announce the committees nearly four and a half months after the party’s National Council held in March.

“What committee is this that they have formed? What kind of party is this that doesn’t have any rules and policies? It looks like this was only for giving positions to some with vested interests. Nothing else.

“What will they give to the country? They have no constitution and no guidelines. Their only goal is to come to power through looting, corruption and pocketing orphans’ money.”

Criticising Ziaur Rahman, the prime minister said the BNP founder had destroyed the values of independence. “He also stopped the trial of the killers of the Bangabandhu with the Indemnity Ordinance and rewarded them with posting in foreign missions.”

Hasina’s reaction to the new BNP committees came during her speech at the unwrapping of a book on her mother Begum Fazilatunnesa.

The prime minister reminisced about her mother at the time.

She also remembered how Begum Fazilatunnesa was always by the side of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.