Staff Reporter:
BNP Acting Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday said the youth played a vital role in safeguarding the country’s independence, sovereignty and democracy through their courageous partic-ipation in the movement against ousted Sheikh Hasina’s rule.
He said the youth raised their voices against misrule and stood up for the country’s democratic aspira-tions, adding that their contributions were commendable.
Rizvi, also the Prime Minister’s Political Adviser, made the remarks as the chief guest at a discussion and reception titled “Second Anniversary of the Long Anti-Autocracy Movement and the July Mass Upris-ing: The Role of Politicians and Professionals” at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, in the capital.
Bangladesh Janatar Odhikar Party organized the event.
Recalling the student-people’s uprising, Rizvi said the country had experienced a prolonged period of misrule before a government came to power through a free and fair election about a year and a half lat-er.
He said the new government had inherited multiple crises, including loan defaults, money laundering and widespread irregularities and mismanagement in the financial sector.
During Sheikh Hasina’s rule, the banking and insurance sectors and the country’s law and order situation had deteriorated, he said, adding that the ruling party’s wishes had effectively become the final word in the country.
Influential quarters had also grabbed government plots, agricultural land and even household livestock, he added.
Rizvi said the government was now facing the burden of nearly Tk 6.07 lakh crore in defaulted loans, adding that the Awami League and people close to Sheikh Hasina had looted public resources in the name of loans.
He said the responsibility for those irregularities did not lie with the current BNP government, which was working to rebuild the economy after years of plundering.
Rizvi also called for investigations into the destination of money looted from financial institutions, in-cluding Sonali Bank, BASIC Bank and Janata Bank.
