Latif's removal underway
The Gono Bhaban yesterday denied The Daily Star reporter access to the prime minister's press conference without giving any reason. We are, however, carrying the report based on television footage.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said Abdul Latif Siddique will be the one to pay for what he has said about hajj, Prophet Muhammad (SM) and Tabligh Jamaat.
She will not keep him in her cabinet. The file for his removal will be sent to the president once the office opens after the Eid, the PM told a press conference at the Gono Bhaban.
“I have asked the Cabinet Division to prepare the file,” she added.
To a query, Hasina said, “I don't think the government is in trouble for what he has said. Rather, it's him who is in trouble. This is the reality. The government has nothing to do with this.”
She also said, “If anyone makes inconsiderate comments, it won't be acceptable to us. So, we will take whatever measures are needed to be taken against him and we have already given instructions to that end …. There's no room for confusion here.”
The press conference was held to brief the media about the outcome of her visit to the US to attend the 69th UN General Assembly.
Hasina claimed her trip was very successful, and Bangladesh's image had been brightened in the UN for the country's many achievements.
However, many of the journalists' questions were on Latif, minister for posts and telecommunications and also a presidium member of the ruling Awami League.
Asked exactly when her decision would be executed, the PM said, "Some procedures must be followed for removing a minister. He will have to resign if I ask him to do so. If he does not, he will be sacked."
If he were to be removed, the file will have to be sent to the president. The president is now abroad for performing hajj and so is the cabinet secretary. The file will move once the office opens, she added.
“What I've said will be done. I said I won't keep him in the cabinet, and he won't be [in it].”
On whether Latif will lose his party post as well, Hasina, also the AL president, said the party's central working committee will decide on the matter.
“It is not acceptable that one of my party leaders will hurt religious sentiments of the people.”
Latif has been getting a lot of flak for taking a swipe at the practices of hajj and Tabligh Jamaat (a movement to preach and spread Islamic values) at a discussion in New York on Sunday.
The BNP, Jatiya Party and several Islamist parties have demanded his removal, arrest and punishment.
The PM said as soon as she was informed of those remarks, she ordered the officials concerned to prepare the file for his removal. “I did not take a second to give the decision.”
NO DIALOGUE WITH BNP
Hasina outright rejected any possibility of talks with the BNP to end the political crisis centring on the controversial January 5 election.
The BNP and different national and international bodies have long been pressing for dialogues.
Asked if the UN secretary general called for initiating talks, she said, “This time he didn't say anything. Perhaps he doesn't see anything wrong.”
Hasina then went on to ask the journalist who made the query if he (the journalist) would sit for talks with someone who wanted to kill him.
“With whom will I sit for talks? With the ones who resorted to corruption, blasts and grenade attacks? Those who killed my party lawmakers, Ivy Rahman and party leaders and workers, and attacked minority communities?
“Will I have to sit with those who burnt alive hundreds of people, burnt hundreds of holy Quran and set mosques afire?”
GOVT TO GO TOUGH
On the BNP's threats of a tougher movement after the Eid, she said Khaleda's movement meant killing of people.
“The government will do what it has done before,” she said, adding that her administration knew how to deal with such movements.
“I don't know who's backing her [Khaleda Zia].”
Replying to a query, she said an accused is allowed to go free even after testimony by FBI. Many leading papers don't write about this. They are out with binoculars only to find the Awami League's faults.
'HISTORY DISTORTION'
Queried if she thinks the recent books by Tajuddin Ahmad's daughter Sharmin Ahmad and AK Khandaker have links to BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman's comments on the history of Bangladesh, Hasina said, “Everyone is writing at whim. How old were they at the time about which they are writing? And one of my ministers … he was a freedom fighter and he has written it … now the publisher should also be asked how they could publish a book containing false information or … . If you observe the patterns of the two books, it seems the same person is the writer of those.”
'LIFE AT RISK'
The premier said her life was at risk.
“Why do you forget that my father, mother and brothers were killed on August 15, 1975, and after that the killers were rewarded and socially and politically established by Ziaur Rahman, Ershad and Khaleda Zia?”
She said she returned to the country and joined politics knowing that risk. “Had I cared about my life, you wouldn't have gotten back democracy. That's the reality.”
Replying to another query, she said the trial of the 21 August grenade attack cases should be expedited.
About the extradition treaty with India, Hasina said talks were on in this regard and there was some progress on the matter.
She also said she spoke with the US authorities about the killing of Nazmul, a leader of the US chapter of AL, who was killed in New York recently.
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