Anti-corruption commissioners resign
The head of Bangladesh’s anti-corruption watchdog and one of his colleagues said they resigned today after the country’s president asked them to quit.
Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Sultan Hossain Khan and commissioner Moniruzzaman Miah said they resigned to allow the interim government to reorganise the agency.
The three-member commission, which was formed in 2004, has reportedly come under pressure from the interim government for allegedly failing to pursue graft during Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s tenure, which ended in October 2006.
The other commissioner, Monir Uddin Ahmed, was expected to resign in a day or two, his colleagues said.
Khan and Miah decided to resign following requests from President Iajuddin Ahmed, Khan told reporters before vacating his office.
They sent in their resignation letters to the president today, a news statement issued by the government’s Press Information Department said.
“We’re resigning as the President requested us to do so, for the sake of reconstituting the Commission,” Khan said. Miah also told reporters that he resigned on the president’s request, “to make way for others.”
Before leaving office, Khan blamed the commission’s failures on a lack of resources, clear-cut rules, and internal disputes.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based global corruption watchdog, has called Bangladesh one of the world’s most corrupt nations in recent years.
As part of the interim government’s pledge to fight corruption and political violence, Bangladesh’s security forces have used emergency powers to detain at least 25 senior politicians and aides since the weekend.
No specific charges have been laid against the detainees, but they are suspected of corruption or subversive acts under an Emergency Powers Ordinance, a government statement said.
The detainees, who have been sent to jail for a month by various magistrates, include former ministers and senior aides from the country’s two major political parties – the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League.
Feuding between the two parties over electoral reforms triggered several months of violent street protests, forcing President Ahmed to impose a state of emergency on January 11.
National elections scheduled for January 22 were postponed because of the political unrest, in which 34 people died. No new election date has been set.
The state of emergency bans political activity and gives security forces sweeping powers to detain anyone without warrants.
Protests erupted in late October when Zia ended her five-year term and handed over power to an interim government as stipulated by the country’s constitution to prepare for the parliamentary elections.
A 19-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, Zia’s predecessor and main rival, organised the demonstrations, alleging that the Election Commission was biased toward Zia’s four-party coalition and was planning to rig the polls.
The demonstrators demanded electoral reforms and the resignation of the election officials. Last week, all five senior officials at the Election Commission stepped down.
