BNP senior leader Barrister Rafiqul Islam Miah on Friday termed mysterious the delayed gazette notification about the appointment of Sajeeb Wazed Joy as an honourary adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina amid a controversy over his remuneration.
“Joy has been working as an adviser to the Prime Minister since she assumed office without issuing any gazette notification. What has actually necessitated it to issue a gazette notification now? The government has to clarify the mystery behind it,” he said.Rafiqul was addressing a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club arranged by Swadhinata Forum, marking BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman’s 50th birthday.
The government has issued a gazette notification appointing Prime Minister’s son Sajeeb Sajeeb Wazed Joy as her an honourary adviser.
According to the gazette notification of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), noted IT expert Sajeeb Wazed Joy, also the son of Sheikh Hasina, has been made PM’s Information and Communication Technology Affairs Adviser. While discharging his duties, Joy would work as per the directives and advice of Prime Minister, according to the gazette notification dated November 17.
Rafiqul said their party acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has sought an explanation from the government about Joy’s remuneration following sacked minister Abul Latif Siddique’s comment at a much-talked-about programme in New York that PM’s son gets $2 lakh dollars a month. “Now the government has circulated the gazette notification. Our question is why hadn’t been issued earlier?”
Referring to Prime Minister’s adviser HT Imam’s remark that the government had arranged the January-5 election by conducting mobile courts by pro-Awami League officials, the BNP leader said it was Sheikh Hasina’s planned agenda to assume office through a ‘voter-less’ election with the mobile courts.
He saidd that their party chief Khaleda Zia’s decision to boycott the January-5 election was right as Awami League would have grabbed power though the same means even if BNP had joined the election.
HT Imam, addressing a BCL programme recently at Dhaka University, pointed out the advantage of having party men in the administration, and how the AL benefited from them. “Days before the January-5 polls, many pro-Awami League officials were inducted into mobile courts that helped the government resist the BNP-Jamaat’s bid to thwart the election. They (pro-AL officials) stood beside us.”
Rafiqul said the 1/11 regime had arrested BNP senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman in a bid to kill him for annihilating the nationalist forces. “Still plots are on against him with the same motive.”
The BNP leader said the base of the current government is very shaky as it got isolated from people.
He urged the party leaders and activists to get ready for a strong movement to ensure Awami League-led government’s fall. – UNB
