The Transparency International Bangladesh expressed deep concern over the news of political rehabilitation of leaders involved in the casino scandal that hit the headlines four years ago.
The anti-corruption watchdog in a media statement on Friday said that it came to know from media reports about the return of such political leaders after years.
The TIB said that it was a worrying example of pledges of anti-corruption commitment going amiss as Members of Parliament were coming in support of these suspended leaders and threatening the Anti-Corruption Commission for taking actions.
Political leaders who were arrested and suspended from the party in the wake of the anti-casino campaign four years ago have started returning home from abroad and taking political chairs and the charge of those clubs that ran casinos in Dhaka.
At the same time, the TIB expressed its disappointment in the futile attempt to hold the government's anti-corruption pledge hostage in the hands of political miscreants.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman, quoting media reports, said that a widely discussed leader, accused of running casino businesses and indulging in corruption who had gone in exile, returned to the country in a surprising way from being a fugitive and was reinstated in the country’s Hockey Federation in the presence of the officials.
At the same time, several other accused leaders are also taking the opportunity to re-engage in political activities, which is a clear example of the head of government trampling on the declaration of ‘zero tolerance’ against corruption, he said.
‘What message do the government and the ruling party want to give to the countrymen? No matter what crime one has committed, if they are associated with the ruling party, it will be possible for them to get away with it!’ he asked.
He demanded that the government halt this sinister process of institutionalising muscle power and corruption in the political arena.
