Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has recently expressed anger over some of the remarks made by several senior leaders of the ruling party Awami League.
She will fly to the US towards the end of this month for attending the UN General Assembly, but before that she has called a meeting of the Awami Leauge Central Working Committee (ALCWC).
An insider said that the meeting is scheduled to be held on Friday September 11, at the prime minister’s official residence Ganabhaban.
“That meeting is highly likely to discuss some of these comments made by the senior leaders and ministers which the PM feels have put the party in an embarrassing position,” the insider said.
Seeking anonymity, a senior member of the ALCWC told the Dhaka Tribune: “In a recent meeting of the cabinet, the PM expressed dissatisfaction and anger over the controversial remarks.”
Awami League’s political partner JaSaD’s role in Bangabandhu killing; crossfire deaths; US’ denial to give Bangladesh GSP facilities; and infighting among the Awami League and its associate and supporter groups are some of the issues that several ministers and influential leaders of the ruling party have commented on in recent times in parliament and at various forums.
The ALCWC member said that the party chief and the prime minister may strictly caution her colleagues to not make any such remarks in future.
Towards the end of last month, lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, member of the Awami League presidium council, and Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, joint general secretary of the party, blamed the then leaning parties for creating the environment that led to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s killing in 1975.
The two ruling party leaders directly pointed fingers at Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSaD), one of those leftist parties which is now a key partner of the Awami League in the 14-party alliance government. JaSaD chief Hasanul Haque Inu is now the information minister.
JaSaD was formed immediately after the Liberation War by a group of disillusioned leaders of Chhatra League, student front of the Awami League. Gonobahini was the armed wing of JaSaD, who at that time claimed to be working for a socialist revolution.
In reply, JaSaD issued a statement that said such comments from senior Awami League leaders could prove to be detrimental for the integrity of the ruling alliance, particularly because their comments were similar in tone with remarks made by their political rival BNP.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has recently said that the US did not restore the Generalised System of Preferences, better known as GSP, for Bangladeshi products in its market although Bangladesh had fufilled all the required conditions.
Later, Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Gowhar Rizvi gave a correction on Tofail’s remark saying that the US held back the GSP because Bangladesh could not fulfill all relevant conditions, not because of any political reasons.
The US cancelled the GSP facilities for Bangladesh after the April 2013 the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building near Dhaka in what is seen as one of the biggest ever industrial disasters that left more than a thousand readymade garment workers killed and several thousands more maimed.