Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Friday said the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)'s statement is not conducive to rectifying Mass Media Employees Bill rather it is an impediment to doing so.
He said this while exchanging views with journalists at his official residence at Minto Road in Dhaka.
Hasan, also Awami League Joint General Secretary, said it has become TIB's habit to issue statements over issues going beyond the areas of their work.
Mass Media Employees Bill will be ratified and amplified in the parliamentary standing committee meeting with the stakeholders and it is not a matter of TIB, he mentioned.
Even after that, TIB issued a statement to make it a political issue which is not helpful for the process of ratification rather it is a barrier, he observed.
The minister said mass media act is for journalists and media personnel and it is not a matter of corruption.
The bill has gone to the parliamentary standing committee and it will be ratified and amplified by holding talks with leaders of journalists, he said, adding that he has already held talks with leaders of journalists.
But TIB issued the statement to make it a political issue and there is an ill motive behind the statement, he mentioned.
Asked about recent comments of BNP secretary general saying "Awami League has become a party of robbers and it is politicizing in TCB card distribution", the AL joint general secretary said 10 million people irrespective of opinion and party affiliation have been given family cards of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and around 50 million people are beneficiaries of it.
Any AL leader was not given the charge in the process rather public representatives, who are from AL, BNP, Jatiya Party and other parties, were given the responsibility, he said.
Actually, BNP finds politics in every matter, he said.
Hasan said that since the people became pleased after getting TCB family cards and thanked the government, BNP cannot accept it so they are talking like the insane.
He said the way in which BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is making comments in recent days does not suit senior politicians and those are also contravening political courtesy.
When BNP was in power, the party turned into "world robbers" and that is why Bangladesh became the world champion in corruption five consecutive times during their tenure.