The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday asked the government to quit after being ‘certified’ corrupt by the World Bank.
‘The government has now achieved an international certificate of being corrupt. The World Bank has finally cancelled funding for the Padma Bridge project. All other development partners are also saying they would not fund projects in Bangladesh,’ she said asking the government to step down taking the responsibility.
Addressing a rally at Fulgazi in Feni, the opposition leader said the World Bank had investigated irregularities in the Padma bridge project about one year back and submitted a report to the government naming the people involved in ‘corruption’ and asked it to take action.
Khaleda alleged that the government had carried out an investigation by politically using the Anti-Corruption Commission to ‘hide’ the ‘corruption’. ‘Even the accused minister was not sacked fearing he might divulge the names of others involved in it. The country’s top echelon, including the prime minister’s relatives, is involved in the corruption. You may inquire who lives in Canada,’ she said.
She said every institution was on the verge of bankruptcy for the government’s corruption.
Khaleda referred to the German foreign minister’s comments on corruption and human rights violation in Bangladesh during his tour here and said, ‘I had a meeting with the chairman of Islamic Development Bank and he said the bank would not fund Bangladesh until it gains transparency.’
The BNP chief warned that all stalwarts of the ruling Awami League would have to flee the country when they would find the time adverse. ‘They do not keep the looted money at home. They do not have any concern for the people...Their families and relatives live abroad...,’ she said.
She admitted that there was corruption during the BNP’s rule, ‘but the incumbents have broken all records of graft’. ‘They rob the people and know the magic of how to hide it. Sackfuls of money was recovered from
a minister’s car and it suddenly became jackfruits,’ she quipped.
Referring to journalist couple Sagar-Runi murder case, Khaleda accused the present government of killing over 10,000 people. ‘Journalists Sagar and Runi have been killed by the government as they had evidence of corruption by its high-ups that is why the killers are still at large.’
Khaleda iterated that no elections would be allowed under a ‘partisan’ government. ‘Nowhere elections are held without dissolving parliament,’ she said.
She asked why the Awami Leageu and its allies had waged a movement in 1996 for a caretaker government. ‘The grounds for the demand remain. We will ensure establishment of a neutral government, if required in the way the Awami League did it in 1996,’ she said.
Khaleda accused the government of giving away everything to India compromising the country’s interests. ‘We are being deprived of the water of Teesta but [the government] is plotting to give them [India] water of Feni river,’ she said.
She said her party could go for all means of agitation, including strike and siege, after Ramadan if the demand for a ‘neutral election-time caretaker government’ was not accepted immediately.
Khaleda addressed three rallies at Fulgazi, Parshuram and Chhagalnaiya of Feni, which comprise her electoral constituency, on the day. It was her first visit to the area after the 2008 elections. She distributed relief materials among the flood-affected people in Feni.
She had visited Chittagong on Saturday and distributed relief goods at Pahartali, Lalkhan Bazar and Bahaddarhat.