The main Opposition BNP has blamed the government for carrying out, what it called, propaganda against the party chief Khaleda Zia over a write-up attributed to her in the US newspaper, The Washington Times. The article sought cancellation of Bangladesh’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility in the US market. “People from a certain special agency published a write-up in The Washing Times on January 30, copying the signature of our party chief,” BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed.
He was talking to reporters at a press briefing held at the party’s Naya Paltan central office in the capital on Wednesday.
Terming the write-up as “irresponsible” and “part of a conspiracy”, Rizvi said Khaleda never sought the intervention of the Obama administration to cancel GSP facility for Bangladeshi products in the US market.
“The write-up is totally false, motivated and baseless, and doesn’t go with our nationalist policies,” he claimed.
Responding to a query, Rizvi, who is also the party’s office secretary, said his party had been protesting against the write-up soon after its publication in The Washing Times.
He, however, did not make any comment when asked whether his party had sent any formal rejoinder to the newspaper since publication of the commentary on January 30.
Rizvi faced a number of questions over the contradictory statements on whether Khaleda wrote the article titled “ZIA: The thankless role in saving democracy in Bangladesh”.
“Don’t create complexity anymore over the issue. We have been protesting against it from the beginning and are still doing so,” he said.
Rizvi’s statement came a day after The Washington Times authorities confirmed that they had published the article written by the BNP chief.
The January 30 write-up, printed under the byline of Khaleda Zia, in the opinion section of The Washington Times, drew huge public attention. At the bottom of the article, Khaleda was identified as “former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and current leader of the Opposition”.
There was a reference to the GSP in the article, but after the suspension of the GSP facility for Bangladesh, Khaleda denied in Parliament, on Saturday, sending any article to the US newspaper.
On Saturday, the BNP chief had said: “It was not written by me.”
About the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) poll scheduled for July 6, Rizvi said the government was reaping “office of profit benefit” by deploying its officials in the election campaign in favour of the ruling party-backed mayoral candidate Azmat Ullah Khan.
According to the electoral code of conduct, Ivy Rahman, the incumbent mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation, could not take part in the election campaign, he said.
“The government is violating the electoral code of conduct by deploying its officials in the GCC poll campaign,” he added.
-With The Independent input
