Shahriar finds no rationale for finding flaws in his docs
State minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam has questioned the rationality of finding flaws in the documents he showed the media regarding opposition BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman’s nationality issue.
In response to a question on his latest Facebook status he posted on Tuesday, Shahriar told the questioner, Saykat Hossain, to ask the UK Home Office about the mistakes.
Saykat Hossain attached a screenshot of one of the documents highlighting the mistakes and asked the state minister, “Then why are so many mistakes?”
In reply, Shahriar said, “That’s what you should ask the UK Home Office. It’s not us who wrote these letters.
“By the way, Mr Fakhrul has said today that the passport has been submitted. So what will you do by finding flaws in the letters,” read Shahriar’s reply.
The Facebook status have so far got about 5,000 emoticon reactions and over 500 shares while about 1,900 people commented on the post until Tuesday afternoon, basically on the BNP’s reaction to his claim.
Most of those who commented on the post launched a scathing attack on the state minister.
In reference to opposition BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s information that his party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman had submitted his passport to the UK authorities and sought political asylum, Shahriar in his post said, “Hope, you all know and understand one needs to surrender the citizenship to secure political asylum, even if it is for a temporary period.
“Because, the rationale behind seeking the political asylum is that you have no place in your own country. So, now the reason behind returning the passport [Tarique Rahman] is understood.
“Our primary question is: he who doesn’t clear his position before the people or who is hesitant [to do so] doesn’t have any moral rights to do politics, let alone becoming the temporary head [of a party],” read Shahriar’s post.
Originally the senior vice chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tarique Rahman who has been living in UK since 2008 was made the party’s acting chairman when her mother and former prime minister Khaleda Zia landed in jail last February.
Addressing a reception hosted by the UK Awami League in honour of prime minister Sheikh Hasina in London on 22 April, Shahriar questioned Tarique’s being acting chairman of BNP claiming that he gave up his nationality by handing over his Bangladesh passport to the UK Home Office almost four years ago.
Following the state minister’s remarks, the BNP challenged and Tarique Rahman, served a legal notice upon Shahriar.
Addressing a press conference at his Gulshan house following the legal notice, Shahriar on 23 April iterated his position and said Tarique, his wife and daughters handed over their passports to the UK home office nearly in June 2014.
At the press conference, the state minister distributed the documents among the newsmen and after the press conference he posted the copies of the documents.
But the next day morning, the state minister claimed that his Facebook page was hacked and the documents were deleted.
Meanwhile, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir organised a press conference on the same day and said the documents the state minister showed and distributed are forged ones, pointing out as many as 13 flaws in the documents.
The primary flaw Fakhrul point out was that the document the minister distributed among newsmen mentioned 'Bangladesh Embassy' instead of 'Bangladesh High Commission'.