Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said, “The members of the cabinet have only expressed their desire to resign, but they will remain in their posts until their resignation is accepted by the president”.
The prime minister made the comment while addressing a function after inaugurating six new buildings at the Dhaka University on Thursday.“Submitting resignation letter to the prime minister will not be considered as a formal resignation and the president has a role in this regard”, Sheikh Hasina said.
“The ministers will remain in their offices until their resignations are accepted by the president”, she added.
Her comments came on the backdrop of widespread criticisms over the submission of resignations by the cabinet members. Different quarters have criticized the move saying that the resignations of the ministers become effective the moment those are submitted to the prime minister.
She snubbed the criticisms and said that those, who are commenting on the issue, are doing so without reading the constitution properly. She also cited the case of former state minister Sohel Taj and said “Sohel Taj had submitted resignation letter to me. But he remained in his post as many days I did not accept it.”
Taking on the issue of the poll-time government, Sheikh Hasina hinted that the cabinet will be a “small one”. She also expressed her determination to hold the next parliamentary election in a democratic manner. She said “The government has amended the constitution to keep the country free from the martial law, quasi- martial law or military-backed government system”.
“We didn’t want to keep even a small hole for the undemocratic forces to stage a comeback”, Sheikh Hasina asserted. She said no country could achieve its desired goal without the continuation of democracy. In this connection, the Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the teachers and students of Dhaka University who staged a vigorous movement for the restoration of democracy during the past military- backed caretaker government.
Sheikh Hasina also recalled the glorious role of the teachers and students of Dhaka University in the Language Movement, the six- point movement, 11-point movement, the mass upsurge of 1969, the War of Liberation, the movement against military rule after independence, and the movement against the autocratic rule.
Referring to her government’s various steps for the development of the education sector, the prime minister said a time-befitting and technology-based education policy has been formulated to build an educated nation.
“We have also taken steps to set up new universities under public and private initiatives”, she said.
Hasina said her government has framed the Private University Act to infuse dynamism into the administrative and academic activities of the private universities.
-With The Independent input
