The High Court has directed the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the allegations of “deceiving the state” and “spending the government money” against former Member of Parliament Parveen Haque Sikder.
The HC bench of justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain ordered this with a ruling on Monday.
Parveen Haque Sikder was an MP of the 11th parliament from reserved seats for women (Shariatpur).
Recently a voter, Asif Sarkar, from Shariatpur appealed to the ACC alleging that Parveen Haque Sikder became an MP without renouncing her US citizenship which is “deceiving the state” and thus her “spending the government money” is illegal. As Asif did not get any results from the ACC, he filed a writ with the High Court in this regard.
Senior lawyer Mohammad Sayeed Ahmed represented the petitioner while lawyer Sazzad Hossain represented the ACC and deputy attorney general Saifuddin Khaled was the public prosecutor.
Later, speaking to Prothom Alo, Mohammad Sayeed Ahmed said despite being a citizen of the US, Parveen Haque Sikder remained in the MP post deceitfully by hiding the information from the state. According to the constitution, this is a crime. This is a criminal offence too. Despite being ineligible, she enjoyed the facilities as an MP, duty-free cars, honorarium and so on. The writ petitioner wrote this to several ministries and the election commission in this regard. He even applied to the ACC. He has filed the writ petition as he did not get any results from any organisation. The High Court has issued a rule and directed the ACC to investigate the allegations. The court also ordered to settle the written complaint of the petitioner.
According to the written complaint to the EC, the US state department issued a passport for Parveen Haque Sikder for 10 years on 7 April in 2014. The expiry date of the passport is 6 April this year. Hiding this information, the US citizen submitted a nomination paper for a reserved women’s seat in the 11th parliament in 2019. Parveen Haque Sikder has not renounced her US citizenship; she even took oath as an MP in 2019 violating the article 66 of the constitution. She gained facilities by “intentionally deceiving the state”, as a result, the money from the state exchequer was misappropriated.