TIB questions Ershad’s role as PM’s special emissary

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has raised questions about how effectively Jatiya Party (JaPa) chairman HM Ershad performs his duties as special emissary to prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Despite being the PM’s special emissary, Ershad was not seen performing this role in his personal tours to several countries, TIB officials said quoting a study at a press conference on Thursday.

TIB revealed the study, titled 'Parliament Watch', on the operation of 14th to 18th session of the 10th national parliament.

According to TIB’s study, the chief of "official opposition party" in parliament, HM Ershad, was appointed as PM’s special emissary on 12 January 2014.

The government, however, did not clarify by issuing any gazette or order as to what Ershad's duties would be as the prime minister's special emissary.

Executive director of the TIB, Iftekharuzzaman, said that they failed to collect any specific gazette regarding the appointment of Ershad as PM’s special emissary.

Asked about this, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told Prothom Alo that there is a gazette in this regard.

According to media reports, Ershad’s duties include representing Bangladesh as a modern, Muslim-dominated democracy, promoting its education system, culture, and non-communal image before the world, as well as working to widen Bangladesh's scope of exporting manpower in the Middle East.

As special emissary, he visited several countries, but he was not seen performing as the prime minister's special envoy in any of these countries, according to the Parliamentary Watch report.

The government pays him Tk 500,000 per month as well as provides him with other facilities and special allowances as the prime minister's special emissary, the report said.