The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has blasted the main opposition BNP chief, Khaleda Zia, for her comments that the constitution would be ‘thrown away’ saying none expected such remarks from the opposition leader.
‘Nobody expects such comments from the leader of the opposition,’ she said as the newly elected office-bearers of Institution of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh called on her at the Prime Minister’s Office Thursday.
Hasina, however, added that Khaleda’s comments were not entirely surprising as her husband slain president Ziaur Rahman had mutilated the constitution with the stroke of his military bayonet after grabbing the state power.
She said after the August 15, 1975 killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the spirit and values of the liberation war was erased from the constitution under martial law orders.
‘(So) it is not unlikely that being his wife Begum Khaleda Zia will make such comments,’ she said.
Hasina said her government rather de-stigmatised
the constitution reinstalling into it the 1971 spirit under the 15th amendment.
The premier said the opposition leader made the comments as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies like Jamaat-e-Islami appeared desperate to save war criminals, corrupt elements, ‘grenade attackers’, and money launderers as the process was under way to expose them to justice.
‘But their efforts will not succeed and the country will definitely witness the punishment of these elements,’ she said.
The science and information & communication technology minister, Yeafesh Osman, the IDB president, AKMA Hamid, and the general secretary, Mohammad Shamsur Rahman, also spoke on the occasion.
Hasina recalled that the war criminals’ trial had begun after the independence and many of them were imprisoned while several of them also were stripped off their citizenship.
But, she said, after grabbing the state power, Ziaur Rahman freed the war criminals under military orders and rehabilitated them in politics while subsequently some of them even got the scope to be ministers and lawmakers.
‘Not only that, Ziaur Rahman awarded Bangabandhu’s killers with diplomatic assignments abroad instead of exposing them to trial while his wife had made killer colonel Rashid as the opposition leader and another killer Huda as a parliament member,’ the premier recalled.
Welcoming the newly-elected office-bearers of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, the prime minister said the diploma engineers had an important role to play for the country’s infrastructure development.
She urged them to implement the government’s development activities speedily, maintaining quality of work.
Referring to the widespread corruption and plundering of public wealth during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, she said the former prime minister and members of her family had whitened blacks money amassed through corruption.
Hasina said Khaleda’s two sons received money from the state for their education. But what education did they get at the cost of public money, she questioned and referred to their alleged involvement in corruption, money laundering and grenade attack.
About the 2004 grenade attack in front of Awami League office, she said the role of intelligence agencies and the law enforcers at that time proved who were involved in that incident.
The prime minister said the prices of food items and other commodities had increased for some global reasons, including the Middle East unrest. However, the government is procuring food from abroad at higher prices so that none suffers in the country for want of food, she added.
Hasina stressed the need for increasing food production in the country and quick industrialisation through setting up small and medial-scale industries.
The prime minister listened to the problems of the diploma engineers and assured them of resolving those.
Ministers, PM’s advisers, MPs and representatives of diploma engineers from across the country were present at the meeting.
-With New Age input
