DHAKA, Jan 12, 2013 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the countrymen, including the lawyers, to be united against the evil design of the anti-liberation forces to foil the ongoing trial of war criminals.
“Conspiracies are being hatched to halt the ongoing trial of the 1971 culprits and install the anti- liberation forces in power again. So, you have to remain alert and to be united against this plot as no achievement is possible without unity,” she said while exchanging views with lawyers at her official Ganobhaban residence here.
The Prime Minister said it is usual that the defeated forces who ruled the country for long 21 years after the assassination of Bangabandhu would hatch plot to foil the trial of war criminals. “To hinder the trial of war criminals, they have appointed lobbyists spending a huge amount of money they earned through corruption,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina urged the lawyers to create mass awareness about the ill efforts of the defeated forces to impede the ongoing trial of war criminals. “You will have to help implement the verdict of the war criminals by facing their all conspiracies,” she said.
The Prime Minister once again stressed the need for continuation of democracy as she said no country can achieve its desired goal without democratic process.
“We must continue the democratic process side by side with ensuring the country’s socioeconomic development,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said it is Awami League government which strengthened democracy and gave it an institutional shape. “We have consolidated democracy from the grassroots level as we believe in people’s empowerment and their voting rights,” she said.
The Prime Minister said all the elections held in the last four years of the present government were staged in a free, fair and neutral manner and none could raise any question about the polls.
On the other hand, she said, all the elections held in the BNP-Jamaat four- party alliance government were rigged, and most
of the candidates were elected through vote rigging and media coup. “As many as 250 people were killed in union parishad elections during the BNP- Jamaat rule thanks to massive terrorism and vote rigging,” she said.
Law Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League Abdul Matin Khasru, MP, General Secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association Mamataz Uddin Mdehedi, former president of Khulna District Bar Association SM Majibur Rahman, President of Jamalpur District Bar Association Advocate Zahid Anwar, General Secretary of Chittagong District Bar Association Ashok Kumar Saha and former president of Dhaka District Bar Association Advocate Nazibullh Hiru also spoke on the occasion, among others.
Post and Telecommunication Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun, State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate Qamrul Islam, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, AL Organizing Secretary Advocate Misbahuddin Siraj and eminent lawyers Barrister Amirul Islam, Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman and Advocate Suruzzaman were also present.
About the opposition’s demand for restoring the caretaker government, the Prime Minister said the people of the country did not forget the tyrannical rule of the past caretaker government.
She said the opposition leader might have forgotten the torture and repression of the past caretaker government, but the country’s people did not forget it. “How is she (Khaleda Zia) so sure that the next caretaker government will not send her two sons abroad by giving a good beating ?” she questioned.
Highlighting various development activities of the present government in different fields in the last four years, she said that the government strengthened the three pillars of the state– – administration, judiciary and parliament—side by side with massive uplift in other sectors.
Regarding the Hallmark and Destiny scams, Sheikh Hasina said it was the government that pointed out the irregularities. “But now it seems that by unearthing these matters we became the thieves,” she lamented.
About the recent debacle of the Awami League-backed lawyers in the Bangladesh Bar Council election, she said lack of coordination among the AL-backed lawyers was the main reason for the debacle.
The Prime Minister urged the lawyers to forge unity and work together in the future to secure good results in the upcoming elections. She requested the lawyers to extend their help to the poor litigants and remain careful so that no innocent people languish in jail.
SOurce : BSS Edited by : @rrajowan