Jamaat slams BNP’s first 6 months as “failure”

Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday described the BNP-led government’s performance during its first six months in office as a failure, accusing it of reneging on its electoral commitments and following what the party called the path of the previous “fascist” government.

Speaking at a press conference at Al-Falah Auditorium in Moghbazar, Dhaka, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar identified the government’s failure to implement the referendum verdict as its first and biggest failure, alleging that by disregarding the result, the government had broken its commitment to the people.

Porwar then laid out a broader indictment of the government’s record, beginning with what he called the country’s gas, fuel and power crisis.

He said national daily gas demand stands at 3,800 million cubic feet, against a supply of only 2,700 to 2,800 million cubic feet — a shortfall he said had disrupted industrial production and cost jobs.

He went on to accuse the government of politicizing state and autonomous institutions, alleging that BNP activists were being appointed to district councils, development authorities, city corporations, universities and government posts.

Porwar also criticized what he described as a deteriorating law-and-order situation and continuing violence on university campuses, alleging that opposition leaders and activists were still being targeted. Six opposition leaders and activists have been killed over the past six months, he said.

On commodity prices, Porwar argued that ordinary people had seen no real relief despite a modest decline in the inflation rate.

“A fall in inflation from 9.42 percent to 9.16 percent does not mean that the prices of commodities have fallen; rather, the pace of price increases has slowed somewhat,” he said.

He further claimed the government had made no visible progress on the banking sector crisis, citing default loans that stood at Tk 588,704 crore as of the end of March.

“There is extreme anarchy and disorder in the banking sector,” he said.

Porwar also accused the administration of failing in agriculture, education, healthcare and the judiciary, and alleged discrimination in development allocations for opposition members of parliament, along with political influence over the civil administration.

Porwar did offer some qualified credit to the government, acknowledging relative stability in the country’s foreign exchange reserves and a government initiative to form a special committee to address the fuel crisis.

He attributed the reserve stability, however, to remittance inflows rather than to any policy achievement by the government.

Also present at the press conference were Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Mujibur Rahman; Assistant Secretaries General Maulana Rafiqul Islam Khan, Hamidur Rahman Azad and Maulana Abdul Halim; and Central Executive Council members Saiful Alam Khan Milon, Nurul Islam Bulbul, Shafiqul Islam Masud and Muhammad Rezaul Karim, among others.