Process to remove Latif complete
The Cabinet Division has completed all preparations to issue gazette notification on the removal of Minister Abdul Latif Siddique from the cabinet for his derogatory remarks about hajj and Tablighi Jamaat, the cabinet secretary said today.
"We're ready in this regard. Now, we're waiting for the signature of the President," M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters at the Secretariat today.
On receiving the file of the minister from the Prime Minister’s Office, the cabinet division would send a summary to the President for his signature, Bhuiyan said.
"Once the President signs the file, a gazette will be published immediately."
At a views-exchange meeting with expatriates from Tangail in New York on September 28, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Abdul Latif Siddique made disparaging remarks about hajj, one of the main pillars of Islam, Tablighi Jamaat and Prime Minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
Siddique had said: “During hajj, so much manpower is wasted. Over 20 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj. They've no work, no production and they only cause deduction."
"Some 20 lakh Tablighi Jamaat people get together annually who don't do any work except halting traffic movement across the country," he added.
About Prime Minister’s son, Latif Siddique had also said: "Who’s Joy? He's no one of Bangladesh government. He can give advice but it's the government that will take decisions."
The minister came under fire at home and abroad for his remarks which also annoyed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
At a press conference on October 3, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Latif would be removed from the cabinet and the Awami League Central Working Committee (ALWC) would decide about his fate as a presidium member of the ruling party.
The ALCWC will sit in a meeting tomorrow.
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