Padma Bribery Conspiracy Case: Yunus, TIB must offer apology to nation: AL
The ruling Awami League yesterday demanded that Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, Transparency International Bangladesh and some intellectuals must apologise to the nation for what it said was their conspiracies to stop the World Bank from financing the Padma bridge project.
At a press conference, the party gave its first formal reaction after a Canadian court on Friday acquitted three former top executives of SNC-Lavalin in an international bribery attempt case linked to the Padma bridge construction in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the cabinet lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her bold leadership in establishing that the corruption conspiracy allegation raised by the WB was false.
“They [Yunus, TIB and some local intellectuals] must offer unconditional apologies,” said AL Publicity Affairs Secretary Hasan Mahmud at the press conference at the party chief's political office in the capital's Dhanmondi.
Yunus wrote an e-mail to a high official of the US, asking the official not to fund the project, he said.
Alongside TIB, several local intellectuals and media personalities were busy proving that there was corruption in the bridge project, Hasan added.
Bangladesh has suffered financially due to their evil efforts as the global lender withdrew its credit for the project, the AL leader said.
“They were engaged in hatching an anti-state conspiracy. The image of Bangladesh was tarnished abroad. They should be brought to book. The government should think about it.”
About the BNP's stance regarding the issue, Hasan, a former minister, said the opposition doesn't have faith in the court system whether it is local or foreign one.
CABINET GREETS PM
The weekly cabinet meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat observed that when the WB brought an allegation of corruption conspiracy and pulled out the fund, the PM categorically said there was no corruption.
She had also asked the WB to prove the allegation but it failed, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters after the meeting.
Finally it has been proved in the Canadian court that there was no corruption in the project. That has been only possible, Alam said, due to Sheikh Hasina's bold leadership.
Due to WB's fund suspension, Bangladesh has been deprived of its desired economic growth for the last few years.
The cabinet members said at the meeting that Bangladesh would have achieved additional 1.2 percent economic growth had the bridge been constructed in due time, with the WB fund.
They expressed the view that the Canadian court's verdict consolidated Bangladesh's stance and brightened the government's image in the global arena.
The cabinet also thanked the Malaysian government for sending relief materials for displaced Rohingya refugees.
BNP'S RESPONSE
The BNP yesterday turned down the ruling party's demand for an apology for supporting the WB's corruption allegation, saying corruption is everywhere in the country.
”Why should the BNP offer an apology? When the World Bank cancelled its deal raising the corruption allegation, as a responsible party, we couldn't remain silent. We rightly reacted,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a press conference at the party's Naya Paltan central office.
Public money is being looted from different sectors and development projects. “There is no area left where corruption is not taking place,” Fakhrul said.
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