Did enough for Khaleda, can do no more: Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said that she used her highest capacity for opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia to allow her taking treatment staying at home instead of jail.

Hasina made the remarks at a press conference on her 14-day official visit to the United Kingdom and France.

‘I used my highest executive power to allow her [Khaleda] to take treatment at home. Now, I have nothing to do in this regard. Everything will be done as per law,’ Hasina, also ruling Awami League president, said responding to a question of a reporter over her stand about the application of Khaleda’s family for allowing her to take treatment abroad.

‘I allowed the inhuman person to live in home on humanitarian ground. How much more do you expect of me? You should be ashamed for asking a question like this. They killed my parents and even my minor brother Rasel,’ Hasina said.

She said that the Khaleda-led government did not allow the Awami League to discuss the August 21 grenade attack incident in the parliament in 2004.

‘Twenty-two of our people were killed and many others injured in the attack. But she [Khaleda] did not allow us to talk about the issue in the parliament. Look, how inhuman she is,’ Hasina said.

After speaking about the Khaleda issue, Hasina refused to take any more question.

Earlier, answering a question, she said that no more incident of extrajudicial killing was taking place in the country.

‘If any such incident takes place coincidently, we investigate it and take necessary actions,’ the PM said, adding that the incidents of extrajudicial killing also  happen in the USA and the UK also.

About the recent the price hike of fuel oils, she said that the government increased rationally the fuel oil prices as a large amount of subsidy was provided for the sector amid the oil price hike in the international market.

Hasina said that the government was giving Tk 23,000 crore in subsidy a year against diesel.

‘We provide a total of Tk 53,000 crore in subsidy against diesel, electricity and other related items,’ she said. ‘You just tell me how much money should be given as subsidy?’ she asked.

Hasina said that the fuel prices had increased in the international market and there would be no more development in the country if a large portion of the budget was given as subsidy.

‘What is our way? How much are our earnings? What resources do we have? Go to developed countries and you will find that there is a shortage of food. In London, you will see that supermarkets are empty. There is no shortage of food in our country,’ said the PM.

She also said that many people who were eligible to pay tax in the country always searched for ways to evade it.

Responding to another question, Hasina said that she welcomed the recent public interest in seeking justice for the deaths and atrocities committed in the years of the military rule after the assassination of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also the father of Hasina, in 1975.

She said that the families of the victims were still seeking justice but had received little attention until then.

She said that no action had also been taken on the four murders at the Bangladesh Television.

Hasina thanked those who had recently brought these issues into the limelight.

She said that 19 coups had followed her father’s assassination.

Hangings, military trials, court-martials led to the deaths of thousands of people after the 1975 assassination, she said.

About the recent electoral violence, Hasina said that the Awami League was taking actions against the people who were contesting in the ongoing local government polls as rebel candidate.

‘The BNP and other parties are also contesting in the polls. But they are not using their party identities. They are engaged in or instigating electoral violence. The BNP in some places baking our [AL] rebels to make the situation abnormal,’ said the Awami League president.

She said that a group of people were doing conspiracy against Bangladesh from abroad.

‘They are trying to turn Bangladesh into a failed state, they are trying to stop development and they want to make our elections questionable,’ Hasina said.

In her written statement about her 14-day visit, the PM said that the consensus of global leaders over accelerating the climate finance alongside releasing $100 billion keeping pace with the Paris deal implementation and the SDGs was a significant achievement.

She also said that the adoption of Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration, which was formulated by 48 heads of the state and the government of climate vulnerable countries, is the outcome of Bangladesh’s leadership in climate diplomacy.

In the UK, the prime minister attended the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, Scotland and Bangladesh Investment Summit 2021 in London.

Hasina said that her participation in the COP26 was very much important for protecting the interest of Bangladesh and other members of Climate Vulnerable Forum member countries.

Regarding her meeting with British prime minister Boris Johnson, Hasina said that both the leaders hoped that the friendly relations of the two countries would be extended and deepened.

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, environment, forest and climate change minister M Shahab Uddin and education minister Dipu Moni were present, among others, during the press conference.

New Age