Bangladesh News

Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina yesterday in parliament locked horns with previous BNP government’s energy minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain over the agreement on open-pit coal mining signed with Asia Energy.

Both Awami League (AL) President Hasina and Mosharraf showed documents in support of their arguments.

Mosharraf, now health minister, and Law Minister Moudud Ahmed said no government has signed any agreement for open-pit coal mining at Phulbari.

At one stage of the unscheduled debate on point of order, BNP lawmaker Moshiur Rahman alleged that it was the AL government that signed the agreement with Asia Energy and Hasina’s son Sajib Wazed Joy negotiated the deal from London.

He said, “I can challenge that the BNP government did not sign any agreement with Asia Energy and I will resign if I fail to prove it.”

During the debate, the opposition lawmakers also blasted the government for police atrocities on the AL leaders and workers during their siege of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday.

In reply to Sheikh Selim’s accusation that the police harassed women activists, even tried to strip them, during the opposition’s PMO siege programme, Moshiur said, “A fake picture was published in a daily showing the woman activist partially stripped due to police beating.”

Just after Moshiur’s speech, Hasina entered the House and sought floor to Speaker Jamir Uddin Sircar, who shifted to other businesses of the day. However, following repeated demands, the Speaker gave Hasina the floor.

The opposition leader presented before the House a file containing documents that the BNP government had signed the agreement with Asia Energy on August 20, 1994.

She said, “The BNP government signed the agreement with BHP for the feasibility study and the BHP later assigned the Asia Energy as per agreement.”

On the BNP lawmaker’s accusation against her son, Hasina said she educated her son not to make illegal money.

Khandaker Mosharraf also showed some documents, saying, “We signed an agreement with the BHP for the pre-feasibility studies and the AL government signed an agreement with Asia Energy on February11, 1998 for exploration only, but nobody signed any agreement for mining.”

Protesting Mosharraf’s explanation, Hasina said, “There was a scope in the agreement signed during the BNP government to assign another company. The BHP took the chance.”

Law Minister Moudud Ahmed also seconded Mosharraf’s argument, saying neither the AL nor the BNP signed any agreement with Asia Energy for “mining” at Phulbari.

Earlier, AL lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta on personal explanations and Sheikh Selim and Shahjahan Khan on point of order criticised the government for police brutality on the opposition leaders and workers.

Leader of the House and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia did not attend the House yesterday, forcing the Parliament Secretariat to postpone her scheduled half-an-hour question-answer session.

Khaleda, who attended only one of the four workdays of the ongoing session, yesterday visited Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj to inaugurate a number of development projects and join public rallies.

The foreign minister and the state minister for home affairs also remained absent from the House yesterday although they were scheduled to reply to lawmakers’ queries in the question-answer session.

In absence of the two ministers, Health and Family Welfare Minister Khandakar Mosharraf replied to the lawmakers’ queries.

The circular issued by the Parliament Secretariat had fixed the schedule for the question-answer session of the foreign and home ministries before beginning of the current session.

Besides, the PM is scheduled to reply to the lawmakers’ queries on every Wednesday when the House is in session.

“It is not the first time–we have been compelled to postpone the prime minister’s question-answer session on several occasions in the last five years,” a senior official at the Parliament Secretariat said.