Several Awami League lawmakers on Wednesday became scathingly critical of the rampant corruption in the country.
Lawmaker and AL joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim on Wednesday came down heavily on the associations of various professional bodies for giving statement in favour of corrupt government officials.
He also said that by giving statement in favour of corrupt individuals these associations were taking responsibilities of the corruption on their own shoulders.
He made the remarks while speaking in the parliament on the general discussion on the proposed budget for the 2024鈥�25 fiscal.
He also stressed finding out other corrupt government officials and urged the government bodies to act accordingly.
He said that politicians did not take action or take sides when allegations of corruption or misdeeds are raised against other politicians.
鈥楻ather, they raised their voice to take political and legal actions. That is the greatness of honest politicians. But sometimes we see when there are corruption allegations against a particular public servant or an official of any private, semi-government organisations or law enforcement agencies, a statement is produced聽 on behalf of the corrupt individual,鈥� he said.
In other words, he said, the responsibility of the allegations against the particular individual is taken by those organisations.
鈥楾his responsibility falls on the entire organisation. We have to get out of this,鈥� he said and called for initiatives to implement prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 zero-tolerance policy against corruption through strict action against corrupt individuals, institutions, government or private agencies or organisations.
Nasim also stressed the importance of reducing the amount of defaulted loans through stern measures against the defaulters.
He said that loan defaulters, money launderers, looters of bank money, and those who do price hikes must be identified.
鈥業 think it is necessary to prepare a list and present it to the nation,鈥� he added.
The AL leader called for forming a special task force to protect people from the hands of this vicious, totalitarian, self-seeking gang.
He said that all the achievements of the country were gained under the leadership of the Awami League and politicians.
鈥楤ut a cabal of usurers or foot-licking dogs of foreign masters corrupt politics and political leadership whenever they get a chance,鈥� he blasted.
On June 21, the Bangladesh Police Service Association issued a statement condemning what it termed a 鈥榮mear campaign鈥� orchestrated by certain media outlets against current and former members of the police force.
BPSA termed recent media reports against its retired and serving officials as 鈥榩artial, ill-motivated, sweeping and exaggerated鈥� and also requested the media to be more cautious while publishing reports on the force.
The statement came amid legal action over allegations of accumulating huge illegal wealth by former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed and his family based on media reports.
Recently, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia also made headlines over allegations of amassing illegal wealth, while expelled president of the National Board of Revenue鈥檚 Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal Matiur Rahman was transferred to the Internal Resources Division of the finance ministry following a recent controversy over his wealth.
The controversy regarding Matiur鈥檚 wealth surfaced after his son Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat posted a photo of a sacrificial goat on social media and claimed to have bought it for Tk 12 lakh.
This raised questions about his father鈥檚 income at this grade (grade-1) with a basic monthly salary of Tk 78,000.
Later, Ifat鈥檚 photos with cars of different brands surfaced on social media and information on Matiur鈥檚 huge wealth, including flats and resorts in various places, including Dhaka, Gazipur and Narsingdhi became public.
Besides, Narail-1 AL lawmaker BM Kabirul Haque said that corruption had been institutionalised in the country.
He said that people involved in procurement and project implementation committed massive corruption and made wealth worth hundreds crore of taka.
Kabirul Haque demanded drastic action against those involved in corruption saying that lawmakers had no scope of doing corruption as they were not involved in any procurement or project implementation.