Bangladesh News

Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina said the massive public misery in the last one and a half years has proved that unelected governments cannot bring any good for people.

She called for handing over power to elected representatives by holding a free and fair election without any further delay.

Hasina was speaking at a discussion on the 33rd death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15 at a hotel in Virginia State, according to US-based news agency News World.

“There is no alternative to holding parliamentary elections; no alternative to democracy to build a happy and prosperous Bangladesh braving the challenges of the 21st century,” she said.

The former prime minister said the anti-corruption drive has turned into an instrument of depoliticisation.

The authorities arrested low-profile leaders leaving the bigwigs untouched in a bid to secure some select constituencies in the general election, robbing the anti-corruption drive of its credibility, she alleged.

She said the caretaker government searched for honest people by detaining her on charges of dishonesty. “People want to know how many honest people they have so far found”, she said adding that people who whitened their black money and those known as usurers are dear to the administration as honest people.

HASINA LIKELY TO RETURN HOME BY THIRD WEEK OF SEPTEMBER
Hasina wants to return home by the third week of September, her personal physician Prof Syed Modasser Ali yesterday said.

The ophthalmologist, who had met Hasina in the US, said the AL president has lost hearing altogether in her left ear and can hear in her right ear only through hearing aid.

He told The Daily Star that he would sue former prime minister Khaleda Zia, her state minister for home affairs Lutfozamman Babar, Home Adviser MA Matin and Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen Zakir Hassan for their negligence in providing Hasina with proper treatment.