Adv. Shahanur Islam Saikot
Programme Manager-Legal & Human Rights
Sheikh Hasina, the President of Bangladesh Awami League (A.L) was elected Prime Minster from 23 June 1996 to 15 July 2001 and was leader of opposition for two terms. During her tenure as prime minister of a poorest, problematic Bangladesh the price index of all day-to-day necessary commodities were stable for 5 years, which was quite unusual in the context of the past experience. Breaking all past record her govt. could turn food deficit Bangladesh into surplus Bangladesh. Prolong disastrous flood situation of 1998 was effectively managed by providing timely sufficient relief to the affected about 50 million masses without misappropriation of single drop of relief materials. Post flood infrastructures were recovered very promptly by the efficient leadership of Sheikh Hasina as a prime minister. None of the national & international communities could pass any single adverse remark about transparency of her govt. though she introduced weekly question hour in the Parliament and also appeared before the T. V. camera to allow the general people to ask any question about the transparency of herself and her govt. That was a unique method of appearance of the prime minister before the trial dock of the People’s Court as an accused to answer the conduct of the prime minister and her govt. directly to the whole nation in the live program of T.V. media. Sheikh Hasina requested the then leader of the opposition Begum Khaleda Zia to remain present with her to ask any question about the govt. But Khaleda Zia did not attend.
Those few examples of transparency of the govt. of Sheikh Hasina clearly prove that she was above all corruption and that is why she could openly face the people in the live T.V. program.
After change of her govt. in 1 Oct. 2001 election B.N.P.-Jamat alliance govt. started to victimize Sheikh Hasina and most of central, zilla ,upazilla ,union parishad leaders and active workers of A.L. with the target to annihilate secular democratic political leaders &workers from the political scene for everlasting their power and turn Bangladesh into Islamic State like Pakistan. As a result many false corruption charges were brought against Sheikh Hasina. Even there was killing attempt of Sheikh Hasina and top leaders of A.L. by grenade attack on 21 August 2004. Proceedings of those false cases were stopped by the High Court.
The present Care Taker Govt. under the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakaruddin Ahmed is the consequence of the national demand under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. Whole nation under the united leadership of Sheikh Hasina extended their full support to this C.T. govt. with the deep aspiration of achieving a govt. of people representative in a free, fare & neutral election within 90 days as per constitution Art. 58(c).
But the whole nations were surprised to see that the Armed Forces in the name of Joutha Bahini (Combined Force) jumped upon the leaders, workers of A.L. Just on their first stroke of attack under Emergency Rule. On the night of 11.1 07. without any specific allegation Mr.Kamal Ahmed Majumder (65) the ex. M.P. and an established business personality was arrested by Army without any charge and taken to the Army concentration camp and detained for days together with tight eyes and naked body in the cold night of January without giving any information to his family members. Even the personal staff of Sheikh Hasina Dr. Awlad, Mr.Babul were also arrested without any charge and taken away with tight eyes to the unknown destination of army torture cell under illegal detention for days together without giving any information to anybody. In the same way army started to arrest, detain, put into torture cell of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (D.G.F.I.) many top leaders & workers of A.L. all over the countries without any specific charges and created reign of terror among the politicians with the attitude of taking revenge against the politics & politicians as is often done by Pakistan Army to de stable the politics in Bangladesh to pave the way to Islamic State with ultimate goal of Fundamentalist Rule like Afghanistan. At such terrorization by army in the disguise of civil C.T. govt. many senior leaders, workers & many businessmen became panic and went to safe shelter to avoid such illegal arrest, inhuman torture and indefinite detention without any specific charge. The whole nation fell into despair about the democratic future of Bangladesh but none from the politicians, civil societies came forward to protest in fear of arrest, torture & indefinite detention. At last Sheikh Hasina, known as the Daughter of Secular Democracy, raised her voice and demanded election within 90 days as per constitution Art. 58 (c) . To shut the voice of Sheikh Hasina for democratic Bangladesh the army under army backed C.T. govt. chalked out a master plan to put Sheikh Hasina into disqualification for future politics by instituting cases and inflicting punishment by the so called Special Court as tutored by the D.G.F.I. almost in the camera trial. Thy failed to search out any real allegations against her because of her extreme transparency & very simple livelihood. At this circumstances thy planed to fabricate false cases with the relevancies of any incident during the period of the govt. of Sheikh Hasina from 1996 –2001. The govt. of A.L. when came to power there was huge shortage of electricity and as per election manifesto power generation was an important priority. The A.L. govt. increased power generation from 1800 M.W. to 4300 M.W. within 1st three years which could not be crossed during last 7 years of B. N. P. - Jamat alliance govt. & C.T.govt. To accomplish those massive works the A.L. govt. engaged power plant installation contractors. The D.G.F.I. targeted those contractors to make their tools to fabricate false cases against Hasina under huge pressure by confining into torture cell of D.G.F.I. The illegally appointed legal advisers one of whose name is Barrister Tuhin Malik drafted the fabricated allegations, forced some of those power plant contractors to produce those drafted statements to the respective police stations. Accordingly, on 1.4.07. one Tajul Islam Farook instituted Tejgaon Police Station case no. 30 under section of law 385/386/387 Bangladesh Penal Code (B.P.C.) stating that he took by himself 30 million taka to S.Hasina in one suitcase on 12.12.98. Carrying of such huge amount of taka in one suitcase by one man was an impossible effort for which the allegation could not be accepted by the people as a fact. On 13.6.07. One Azam J.Chowdhury in the same way instituted 2nd false case against S.Hasina though in the contents of the allegation there is no mention of accepting money by her. This is Gulshan Police Station case no.34 under section of law 385/109 B.P.C. The 3rd case was instituted on the same day of 13.6.07.by Noor Ali in Tejgaon Police Station vide case no. 32 under section of Law 385/109 B.P.C. against S.Hasina charging to recive cash cheque of Tk.32 million in between 8.6.97. And 20.5.99.for about the duration of 2 years from said Noor Ali .It is an unbelievable story of giving and accepting money as a bribe under threat in such prolonging period. The signatories for withdraw of the money on the back of the said cash cheque was neither S. Hasina nor any of her representatives. The contents of all those 3 allegations do not relate to extortion under immediate threat of causing injuries to the complainant as per section of law 385 B.P.C . But it is astonishing to see that S. Hasina has been charged under that grave section of law so that she can be imprisoned for more than 7 years in each of the cases by Special Court in the camera trial. All the 3 complainants were chosen from among the Power Plant contractors.
The last 4th case has been instituted by Anti Corruption Commission vide case no. 2 dated 2.9.07 in Tejgaon Police Station under Anti Corruption Law against S. Hasina. The contents of the allegation has never mentioned that she ever asked or accepted any illegal gratification. The person Mr. Aziz Khan another agent of power plant installation who has been alleged to have given the alleged of 30 million has denied the allegation of offering money to S.Hasina in a press release. His father was very close to Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzibur Rahaman and his party A.L. from long time back. With that legacy of their allegiance to A.L.Mr. Aziz Khan including the whole family members of dist. Gopalganj are politically closed linked with A.L. and its President S.Hasina . His elder brother Lt. Col.(Retd.) Farooq Khan was M.P. twice as a nominee of A.L. For a long time as an usual convention they have been donating subscription to the party fund and special party program of A.L. With such subscription & donation of A.L. leaders, workers, supporters, sympathizers of home and abroad Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzibur Rahaman Memorial Trust has been founded . S. Hasina and S. Rehana donated their only house in Dhanmondi Dhaka which was inherited from their father Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzibur Rahaman.This Trust is managed and developed by a Board of members consisting of many eminent and respectable personalities of the nation including Professor of Emeritus Kabir Chowdhury, Justice K. M. Hasan , Advocate Gaziul Haque ,a legendary personality under whose leadership Language Movement of 21 Feb. 1952 was held which is now observed as International Mother Language day all over the world as per U.N. Resolution. S.Hasina and S.Rehana have been honored as President & Vice President respectively of the Trust. This Trust is giving stipend to more than 1200 poor talented students, assistance for treatment to many poor patient, donation to many poor people, rendering various other humanitarian services to different sectors of necessities. All accounts of the Trust are transparent and audited in regular interval.
For expansion of the Trust office premises the adjacent land was purchased by the Trust at about Taka 60 million of which Taka 30 million was paid by the said Mr. Aziz Khan to the land owner in the year 1997.None of the law of Bangladesh or any other country and conscious citizens can put S.Hasina into the trial dock in any way for the transaction of the said money subscribed as a donation to the Trust which is obviously a public property. But it is a share misfortune for law abiding citizens of Bangladesh that how a govt. could misuse the law to victimize an important, honest, popular public leader like Sheikh Hasina. In this situation the people are bound to be worried about their own fate for victimization by such misrule at the hand of the Care Taker Govt.
From the facts as described above it is very clear that all 4 cases instituted by this C.T. govt. are based on false and concocted charges showing the period from 1997 to 2000 that is those so called charges have been brought after more than 7 to 10 years. In between this period Khalda Zia’s B.N.P. - Jamat alliance govt. hunted for allegations against S.Hasina as their extreme political rival. But none of such allegations could be detected by that govt. Rather S. Hasina’s govt. by its sincere and transparent effort could save Bangladesh from continuous load shading by increasing power from 1800 M. W. to 4300M.W.within a very short time. During her period besides many other sectors of business the investment in industrial sector was booming creating lot of employment. The deficit Bangladesh was dreaming to enter into medium developed country within 2020. For such development with object to poverty alleviation she & her govt. were duly recognized by international communities on different occasions with various rewards even by Dr. Henry Kissinger. In recognition of her effective effort of poverty alleviation in a poorest country like Bangladesh she was invited as a special guest to deliver her ideas of such poverty alleviation in D-8 conference on 18 July 2001 even after she handed over the charge of Prime Minister on 15 July 2001.
But it is mysterious that the C.T. govt. ignoring her huge good works for the nation is not only instituting false fabricated cases but also has added section of emergency rule so that she can be tried in special court to be awarded pre planned punishment in the camera trial by the tutored judges. Another vindictive attitude of the govt. against S. Hasina has surprised the whole nation. S. Hsina was arrested on 16.7.2008. Under cordon of more than 1000 Police, R.A.B, B.D.R, Army, as if she is a veteran criminal, in a very disrespectful manner & bailed out by the Hon’ble High Court on 2.8.07. There is seldom any precedence to appeal to the Supreme Court by the govt. against any bail because any bail can be cancelled at any time by bail granting court for any violation of the conditions of the bail. But in case of S. Hsina’s bail the govt. instantly filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the bail and simultaneously shown her arrested in another concocted case under section of emergency rule. As per law, bail is a fundamental right and so long there are no possibilities of the person on bail to disappear after the bail, normally bail is not denied. The personality like S. Hasina has no scope to disappear, so there is no valid ground to suspend bail by the Supreme Court. But so far the perception of the people of Bangladesh the Judges of the Supreme Court avoided contradiction with the govt. policy of prolong detention of S. Hasina into jail suspended the bail granted by the High Court for fear of harassment in the name of so called property statement to the A.C.C. of Lt.Genl.(Retd.) Hassn Masud Chowdhury who earned his name as an initiator of extra judicial killings of 58 persons as the Army Chief in the name of OPERATION CLEAN HEART. He had an unusual meeting with the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court chamber along with Inspector General of Police a few days back of that appeal to the Supreme Court.
All those day light facts of abusing the minimum Human Rights to S. Hasina are obviously in the knowledge of the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakruddin Ahmed. So his misguiding statement to His Excellency Joseph Crowley, the Congressman of the U.S. Congress, on 23 Sept. in New York regarding treating S. Hasina under normal Law and International standard of Human Right is not expected from a personality like Dr. Fakaruddin Ahmed who is holding a highest office as a Chief Adviser with the rank status of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Such conduct of distortion of facts obviously speaks that the democratic future is at stake in the hand of the C.T. govt. under the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakaruddin Ahmed.
To rescue the democracy in Bangladesh immediate holding of election is necessary under updated voter list as per of the Supreme Court directions instead of waiting for prolonging process of photo voter list & I. D. card. The state of Emergency should immediately be lifted for the sake of the normal functioning of the court for protecting the Human Rights of every citizen of Bangladesh from severe abusing by the Army backed C. T. Govt.
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