Staff Correspondent
The cabinet yesterday approved in principle 10 of the 54 ordinances the parliamentary special committee recommended for making into laws.
More ordinances out of the remaining 44 are likely to get the cabinet nod Wednesday, sources said.
The special committee, formed to examine the ordinances promulgated by the last caretaker government, recommended 54 out of 122 ordinances Sunday for ratification. The ordinances are required approval of the cabinet before those can be tabled as bills in the House.
The Money Laundering Prevention (amendment) Ordinance, 2007, is among the 10 approved yesterday. Two other important ordinances approved by the cabinet are Electoral Rolls Ordinance, 2007, and Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance, 2008.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired yesterday’s cabinet meeting held at the Cabinet Division of the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The meeting started around 11:00am, lasted for about five hours and discussed the 10 ordinances at length before approval.
The other ordinances are related to Rangpur university, university of professionals, trademarks, speedy trials, Tourism and money-loan court.
The cabinet also approved supplementary budgets of 2006-07 and 2007-08 fiscal years and the budget of 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years.
The cabinet, however, asked the home ministry to further scrutinise the Law and Order Disruption Offence Speedy Trial Act (amendment) Ordinance, 2007, and place it before the cabinet in the next meeting for approval.
About money laundering, Bangladesh Bank Governor Salehuddin Ahmed informed the meeting that a huge amount of money had been siphoned off to Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
“He assured the prime minister of specific proofs in this regard,” Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad told reporters after the meeting.
Azad, however, did not reply when he was asked whether any decision was made about getting the money back.
Asked whether there was any discussion on a tribunal for trying war criminals, he replied in the negative.
He said the meeting gave final approval to the Rangpur University Ordinance, 2008, renaming the institution to Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur.
The press secretary said the meeting amended the Bangladesh University of Professionals Ordinance to keep the president as university chancellor, instead of the prime minister, and approved it.
The members of the cabinet observed that a probe should be launched into the flawed voter list prepared during the BNP-Jamaat regime so that the people responsible could be punished and any attempts to hold farcical election in future could be prevented.
After Election Commission (EC) Secretary Humayun Kabir informed ministers that about two crore fake voters were found in that voter list, the cabinet discussed the matter.
“The prime minister and her cabinet colleagues discussed that the matter and said there should be an investigation and the responsible persons should be brought to justice,” Azad told reporters.
“They were of the opinion that crores of taka could be saved by stopping such the malpractices,” he added.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
