The High Court has asked how Chief Whip ASM Feroz, accused of loan fraud, has become a Member of the Parliament. Justices Salma Masud Chowdhury and Md Habibul Gani issued the rule after a preliminary hearing on a writ petition on Monday.
Barrister Rafiq-ul-Haque represented the plaintiff in the hearing along with Barrister ABM Siddikur Rahman and Barrister M Mainul Islam.
Deputy Attorney General M Mokhlesur Rahman was present on behalf of the state.The writ filed by Bauphal Municipality Mayor Ziaul Huq Jewel said ASM Feroz rescheduled his loan four days before submitting his nomination paper and the Bangladesh Bank approved it the next day.
Feroz was not eligible to contest the election according to Section 12(M) of the Representation of the People Order (RPO), the writ said.
“Loans have to be rescheduled at least seven days before submission of nomination papers,” Siddikur Rahman told reporters after the hearing.
“But Feroz was a loan fraudster until Nov 26 according to Bangladesh Bank’s Credit Information Bureau.”
The lawyer said another man who was seeking nomination at that time had objected to this but the Returning Officer did not take that into account.
The Chief Whip, Secretaries of the Parliament Secretariat, Election Commission, and the Ministry of Law, Director of the Bangladesh Bank’s Credit Information Bureau, Managing Director and Foreign Investment Branch Deputy General Manager of the Sonali Bank, Managing Director of the Patuakhali Jute Mills and Returning Officer of the relevant continuency have been asked to respond to the rule within four weeks.
Chief Whip ASM Feroz recently made news by asking party activists to come up with cash rather than crests in a reception at his constituency.
The law does not allow loans to be rescheduled more than thrice but Feroz rescheduled it eight times, a lawyer for the petitioner M Mainul Islam told bdnews24.com.
“The Sonali Bank, after the rescheduling, waived off around Tk 135 million. He still has loan worth Tk 204 million.”
ASM Feroz, five times PM from Patuakhali-2, has been in politics ever since he was a student. He came to Parliament first time in 1979 during the tenure of Ziaur Rahman’s BNP.
He joined Awami League after winning as an independent candidate in the 1986 election. – bdnews24.com
