Resignation of Syed Abul Hossain as information and communications technology minister was accepted on Thursday, just 30 days after its submission.
President Zillur Rahman finally accepted his resignation with effect from July 23, 2012, according to a gazette notification of the Cabinet Division.
‘The resignation of Syed Abul Hossain as ICT minister has been accepted,’ cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told New Age.
Abul Hossain, also the former communications minister, stepped down on July 23 as ICT minister amid mounting pressure from within and outside the government over alleged corruption charges in connection with the Padma bridge project.
His resignation came in the wake of World Bank’s cancellation of a $1.2 billion loan for the $2.9 billion Padma bridge project on allegations of corruption.
The former communications minister has neither attended the weekly cabinet meetings nor attended his office at Agargaon since July 23 as news of his resignation appeared in the media.
Abul Hossain, who was inducted in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet on January 6, 2009, served as the communications minister for about three years.
In the wake of the World Bank’s allegations of corruption, the prime minister gave him the responsibility for the ICT ministry.
Abul Hossain tendered his resignation to the prime minister to facilitate ‘proper investigations’ of the allegations of corruption in the Padma Multipurpose bridge project, levelled by the World Bank, according to officials.
The ICT minister announced his resignation just a day after the finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, said that the government was considering the World Bank’s fourth condition so that the global lending agency would reviews its decision on the loans it had committed for the Padma bridge project.
The government, according to the World Bank condition, should send on leave government officials and those appointed politically for their alleged involvement in corruption in the mega project during investigations.
Accordingly, former bridges division secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, now executive chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, has gone on leave for an indefinite period in the interest a ‘fair investigation’ of the alleged corruption in the Padma multipurpose bridge project.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in London on July 26 that Abul Hossain was a patriot and he stepped down on his own to pave the way for the construction of the Padma bridge.
She also said that Abul Hossain had shown courage by resigning even though the World Bank could not provide any ‘concrete evidence of his involvement in corruption.’
Earlier during the 1996-2001 tenure of the Awami League government, Abul Hossain was forced to resign as a state minister after he travelled abroad on his green passport instead of using his ministerial passport.
-With New Age input
