Is Dr Yunus above the law, has the govt punished him: Quader
Is Dr Muhammad Yunus is beyond the jurisdiction of law, asked the ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader on Tuesday.
He raised this question while addressing a media briefing at the party president Sheikh Hasina’s political office in the capital’s Dhanmondi area.
When asked about the verdict in the case filed against Dr Yunus, Obaidul Quader posed a volley of questions to the media, “Is your status, position, and the height of your personality beyond the jurisdiction of law? Is Mr Dr Yunus beyond the jurisdiction of law? Has the Awami League government punished him? The court punished him in a case that was filed by workers whom he deprived of their rights. What could the government do here? Why should the government face criticism for this? This is not an appropriate gesture.”
The Awami League leader termed the programmes of key opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as mysterious.
Quader claimed to the media that he is receiving information that though they (BNP) have been displaying silence outside in the name of distributing leaflets, they would suddenly become violent through an armed movement.
The AL leader also remarked that the Jatiya Party is nowhere near securing the required number of constituencies to form the government
Apparently the second-in-command of the governing party said, “We are a bit astonished that they (BNP) are going to distribute leaflets until 4 January. At the same time we are receiving some alarming information too, they might suddenly take a turn to sneak attacks and kill secretly. They have been preparing for this.”
Awami League will run the country more strongly and in a disciplined way, remarked Obaidul Quader.
Responding to a question, he said, “BNP maintains silence now. Their leaflet distribution is an innocent programme. But do you want to call this a movement?”
We don’t have any tension with them. We had a very good discussion. I don’t think they will quit the election as a party
Obaidul Quader hoped for a free, fair and peaceful election even though there is arson terrorism and other types of terrorism. He also remarked that there are sufficient reasons to suspect the BNP.
Awami League remains adamant to organise the election, said Obaidul Quader. “Awami League is determined to extend any type of help to the election commission to play its due role in holding the election and electoral activities.”
He further informed the media that the Awami League better prepared than before to thwart the election boycott activities of BNP.
Speaking about Jatiya Party chairman GM Quader’s recent statement that they “cannot talk about staying in the election until the last moment”. Obaidul Quader said, “We don’t have any tension with them. We had a very good discussion. I don’t think they will quit the election as a party.”
The AL leader also remarked that the Jatiya Party is nowhere near securing the required number of constituencies to form the government. “They have fielded more candidates than the number required to form a government. Some of the candidates cannot take part in the election, that’s their issue. There is no problem in the election.’