Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brushed aside the possibility of any midterm election and holding any dialogue with the BNP claiming that the Awami League-led government is performing well after the January 5 election.
“Why there should be a midterm election? What are the problems [created] for which we should go for a midterm election? For whom the midterm election needs to be arranged? Is it needed to put in power the party that was created by power usurper Ziaur Rahman?” she questioned in response to a volley of questions from Bangladeshi journalists living in New York.
Hasina said she had nothing to do for the party which is outside parliament, as per the parliamentary form of democracy. “What is dialogue? With whom?”
The Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the United Nations organised the press conference at its office on Friday.
BNP chief Khaleda Zia has repeatedly been seeking midterm poll under a non-party caretaker government. The BNP-led alliance and some small parties boycotted the January 5 election.
When a reporter pointed to initiating dialogue with the opposition party, the premier questioned about the definition of opposition party. “Opposition party! Which is the opposition party? What does it mean by opposition party in a parliamentary democracy?”
As another journalist mentioned about the BNP, Hasina replied: “The party which is outside parliament is outside parliament; what can I do for that?”
If anyone boycotted the January 5 election, it was their decision, “not mine. What can I do as they decided not to take part in the election?” she said adding that if a party made a mistake, then they would have to pay the price for such a decision.
She also dismissed the allegation of having an entente of her government with Jamaat-e-Islami saying that the judiciary in Bangladesh was completely independent.
The allegation surfaced following the recent Supreme Court verdict commuting Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s death sentence to imprisonment until death. “If there is any sort of entente, how there will be trial of that person? It is the court that takes the decision whether there will be a capital punishment or not.”
Hasina also said: “We cannot interfere in the judiciary. How could there be an agreement if the independent judiciary gives its verdict? Did I give the verdict? I did not.”
She said it was her government that had put the war criminals on trial. “Did any other party take the initiative? They rather made these people ministers and allowed them to fly the national flag on their vehicles.
“Let there be trial first of those who rehabilitated these elements and made them minsters. They are the same kind of criminals.”
After the verdict, Hasina told parliament that the judgement had not been desirable to anyone. “People would have been happy if [the Appellate Division] upheld the death sentence [of Sayedee]. Sayedee was known as a religious preacher. But this verdict will portray him as a rapist, a killer, a looter and a war criminal.”
When her attention was drawn to the recent remarks of BNP chief Khaleda Zia asking the ruling party leaders, including Hasina, to get ready to flee the country, the premier said she had never fled the country.
She said Bangladesh is her birthplace while Khaleda was born in a tea garden of Shiliguri in India. “So I do not need to take visa, rather she needs it.”
Responding to a question regarding corruption, the premier said the present government was always aware about grafts.
She alleged that international vested quarters had tried to label her government as corrupt.
“I am talking about the Padma bridge [corruption conspiracy]. The World Bank stopped funding saying that there was a huge corruption in the project. But I challenged that there was no corruption.”
The Anti-Corruption Commission earlier this month acquitted all the seven accused from the Padma bridge corruption conspiracy case since it found no evidence against them. The accused include former bridges division secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. Former communication minister Syed Abul Hossain and former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury were mentioned as suspects in the ACC case.
Describing advancement in various sectors including economy, power and education during her rule, Hasina said had there been any corruption the country, they would not have been able to march forward. “How have we increased power generation from 3200MW to 11700 MW?” she questioned.
Replying to a question, she said her meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday ended with just exchange of greetings.
