Foreign ministry ready to publish letter if Jamaat Ameer wants

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is prepared to make public the widely discussed letter from Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Leader of the Opposition Shafiqur Rahman, if he wishes.

The ministry said this in a statement issued on Wednesday to clarify several matters after media reports about the letter.

The statement also said that the foreign minister had no phone conversation with anyone from Jamaat regarding the matter.

Shafikur Rahman recently handed a letter, bearing his own signature on the opposition leader’s pad, to Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman.

In the letter, Shafikur requested that his foreign affairs adviser, Professor Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan, be appointed to the ministry with the rank of a minister.

The issue sparked discussion after Prothom Alo published a report yesterday titled “Opposition leader seeks posting for his adviser in the Foreign Ministry.”

Jamaat later issued an explanation stating that adviser Mahmudul Hasan had added the section about granting ministerial rank in the letter without the Ameer’s instruction. After the matter came to light, Mahmudul Hasan was relieved of his duties.

Following another media report that mentioned a phone conversation between Jamaat and the foreign minister, the ministry said in its statement that no such conversation had taken place.

The statement also provided detailed information about the background and contents of the letter at the centre of the discussion.

According to the ministry, on 22 February Mohammad Mahmudul Hasan sent the letter to the foreign minister on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition. It was first sent electronically and later handed over directly to the foreign minister. The letter was written on the Leader of the Opposition’s official parliamentary letterhead and bore only his signature.

Regarding the contents, the statement said the letter recommended appointing Mahmudul Hasan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an adviser—or with the status of a minister—serving as the Leader of the Opposition’s foreign affairs adviser. In the letter, the opposition leader praised Mahmudul Hasan’s competence, professionalism, and prudence, and made a special request to the foreign minister to appoint him to the position to help advance the country’s foreign policy in a coordinated manner.

The ministry’s statement added that if the Leader of the Opposition gives written consent, it is ready to publish the full text of the letter publicly.