The ruling Awami League had appointed lobbyist to promote good governance and a positive image of Bangladesh, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said before adding the BNP-Jamaat hired firms to harm the country.
"The government hired what we call a PR firm," he told the media on Tuesday.
Hiring lobbyists is not against the law and not a new thing, Momen said. "It has been around for a long time…Since the Ershad regime.”
According to him, the government has exact information on how many lobbyists the BNP had appointed and that its “main purpose it to harm the country.”
Responding a query whether Bangladesh will face difficulties over UN peacekeeping missions, Momen said, "The UN takes people for peacekeeping mission after thorough background checks. So, we are not worried."
Last week, 12 international human rights groups wrote to the UN to exclude members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from peacekeeping operations following evidence of widespread abuses.
In a letter to Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the rights groups voiced concern “that individuals who have served with [RAB] are being sent on UN missions, despite consistent and credible evidence of abuses including extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances by members of this unit since its creation in 2004″.