The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, told parliament on Tuesday that she was offered 'a post of PM status' during the last military-backed caretaker government, seeking an assurance that she would stay away from elections.
'They didn't want to be in power for only two years, but for 10 years. I was told that I would be given the status of a prime minister and the facilities a prime minister enjoyed but wouldn't be able to take part in elections. I was allured in many ways,' she said.
'I asked the age of the army officers who came with the proposals and said my father [Sheikh Mujibur Rahman] was a Jukto Front minister when your boss General Moeen [U Ahmed] was born in 1954. My father liberated the country.'
'I was a daughter of the head of the state. I myself was a prime minister. There's no use of trying to allure me. I want elections,' she added.
Sheikh Hasina, Awami League president, and the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, were detained along with several other prominent politicians and businessmen on charges of corruption.
Hasina recalled, 'You've [Khaleda] the same experience as you were sent to jail that time, too.'
She said her expectation about caretaker government system got a jolt at that time and blamed BNP for this.
'There were faults in the law BNP enacted. So, the Supreme Court repealed the system,' she said.
'There was a possibility of a military coup in 1996 and the country saw a civil coup in 2001,' she added.
On Feb 15 1996, a national election was held without Awami League and several other parties. BNP bagged 278 seats and formed a government.
That government brought the 13th Amendment to the constitution with the caretaker government provision on March 21 that year in the face of Awami League's demand.
Source : New Age
No comments:
Post a Comment