What's the reason behind Islami Bank shake-up: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has asked the government to come clean on what really prompted the shake-up in Islami Bank top-tier management.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 9 Jan 2017, 06:13 PM
Updated : 9 Jan 2017, 06:13 PM

In a biggest ever shuffle on Thursday, Mustafa Anwar, Abdul Mannan and Azizul Haq stepped down as Islami Bank chairman, managing director and vice-chairman respectively on health grounds.

The bank is traditionally owned and controlled by Jamaat-e-Islami, a political ally of BNP.

Mir Quasem Ali, one of the Jamaat man who had controlling authority in the bank management was hanged last year for war crimes.

Former secretary Arastoo Khan has been made chairman of the bank while another former secretary, Syed Manzoorul Islam appointed Islami Bank Foundation chairman.

Deputy Managing Director Mahbubul Alam is made the acting managing director of the bank while Syed Ahsanul Alam Parvez filled the post of vice-chairman. Yousif Abdullah Al-Rajhi has been retained the position of another vice-chairman.

Lashing out at the government, the BNP secretary general said at a press conference at the party's Naya Paltan office, "We want to understand clearly the problems that arose with the bank that necessitated a change of the entire management. We're not saying good or bad, we want to know the facts."

Alamgir accused the Awami League government of trying to destroy Bank.

He said that kith and kin of ministers and MPs of the ruling party or even deposed military dictator HM Ershad are being given positions in the new banks that are coming up.

Reacting to Finance Minister AMA Muhith's explanation that foreign stakeholders wanted the change, Alamgir demanded that the name of the country concerned which asked for the changes.

Criticising the government on claims of development, he said that the government's claim is contradictory to real scenario.

Quoting from the recently released CPD report, he said, "Development isn't taking place as claimed. Remittance is dropping, foreign investment is almost nil. Local investment is taking place on certain fronts only."

"CPD released their report yesterday (Sunday). They have said diversified investment isn't taking place", he said.

Claiming that corruption was rampant in all sectors he said, "If one opens a newspaper one will see that corruption is on in the country."

Taking on the government over corruption in education he said, "Despite having GPA-5 and Golden GPA-5 in HSC and SSC 1-2% students aren't getting admission to universities. Private universities are mushrooming, there are such universities that do not even have their addresses.

Even more fearsome is the mushrooming of private medical colleges in every street. I do not know what will be the condition of our healthcare system in future," he said.

BNP Educational Affairs Secretary Prof Obaid Ul Islam discussed the "partisanship" in various levels of educational institutions including universities and errors in textbooks.