The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday demanded that the leaked telephonic conversation between law minister Anisul Huq and prime minister’s private industry and investment adviser Salman F Rahman on government projects should be investigated.
‘There is no scope for skipping the issue considering it a mere conversation. The topics should be investigated in the interest of transparency and accountability in the country,’ BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a press conference that was held to disseminate information about the party’s standing committee meeting held through videoconferencing on Monday.
The press conference was held at the party chairperson’s office at Gulshan in Dhaka in later afternoon.
‘Three important issues came up in the phone conversation: the name of Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of and IT adviser to prime minister, the names and implication of two High Court judges and the unethical interference in the functioning of the administration in the Secretariat,’ Fakhrul said.
Earlier on February 14, law minister Anisul Huq said that the government would investigate the recent leak of his telephonic conversation about government projects with Salman F Rahman.
The minister said, ‘Of course, steps will be taken to investigate it. The issue is, those who are circulating it in social media are so bankrupt that they are taking advantage of an innocent conversation.’
Mirza Fakhrul also said that the party’s standing committee decided to hold a programme on February 27 to demand an acceptable election under a neutral poll-time government.
Fakhrul said the decision was made to hold a programme on February 27, 1991 to highlight the success of the first-ever acceptable and participatory election in the country under a neutral government on February 27, 1991 and to present it to the people again in the present context.
He said it was clear from the nomination of members for the search committee to form an election commission that a neutral, fair and acceptable election could not be held under any circumstance without a mandate of the people.
The BNP secretary general said that the fact was proved in the 2014 and 2018 parliamentary elections and local government elections.
‘In this context, the BNP thinks that proposing names to the search committee and forming of an election commission are completely meaningless. The BNP believes that the government’s effort to form the Election Commission is a part of a blueprint to hold onto the power,’ he said.
