DHAKA: Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader slammed the opposition BNP saying that the party has picked a corrupt politician as its new leader.

BNP made party vice chairman and Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman as acting chairman after Khaleda sentenced 5 years in jail in a corruption case on Thursday (Feb 8).

In response to this decision, Quader made the remarks while visiting a BRTA project in Gazipur on Friday (Feb 9).

Quader said, “Who have they appointed as leader? Tarique Rahman? Why? He (Tarique) is a convicted felon. Earlier he was sentenced to 7-year in jail in a money laundering case and this time got 10 years. BNP made a corrupt person as its leader.”

“Why BNP omitted Section 7 from their party constitution is clear now. Because Section 7 stated that any identified corrupt person will be counted unqualified to be a member or run for election candidate from BNP”. 

After omitting the Section 7, BNP submitted the amended copy of the party constitution to the Election commission on January 28.

Quader also said that the government did not file the Zia Orphanage case. Khaleda Zia intentionally missed court hearing for delaying the trial into the election year.

After Khaleda’s verdict was pronounced, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul termed the verdict as revengeful and said it will further enhance the current political crisis in the country.

In response to Fakhrul’s remarks, Quader said, “The verdict did not advance country's political crisis but it increased BNP’s internal crisis.”

BDST: 1720 HRS, FEB 9, 2018
AP