BSS: [2] Information Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday said it is known to all that the key task of BNP’s alternative powerhouse ‘Hawa Bhaban’ was to impose 10 percent ‘toll’ on business during the BNP-Jamaat regime. “When BNP was in power, they ran a ‘parallel’ government creating the “Hawa Bhaban” and its main task was to impose 10 percent toll on business,” he said. [3] The minister said this while talking to journalists after addressing the first founding anniversary programme of the Dainik Somoyer Alo at the Officers’ Club in the city.
[4] Dr Hasan said the US intelligence agency FBI gave testimony on corruption of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, elder son of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, who has been awarded 10-year imprisonment in graft cases.
[5] He said BNP Chairperson, who is also a convict of graft cases, had ‘whitened black money’ giving fine.
Khaleda’s another son Arafat Rahman Koko’s laundered money was brought back from Singapore, he said, adding that these incidents were unearthed by foreign intelligence agencies and not by the government.
“So, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s remark on corruption is applicable for their own party leaders,” he said.
The AL joint general secretary said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government is running the country in a proper manner, so massive development is taking place in every sector.The per capita income now rose to over $ 2000 from $600 and “we are ahead of Pakistan in social, economic and human indexes,” he said.
On the other hand, Dr Hasan said, the country became champion in corruption for five times during BNP regime.