Politics
Foreign powers like US behind my ouster: Indian media quotes Hasina
In what is being called in Indian media to be her first statement since resigning and fleeing the country on August 5, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has accused foreign powers like the US of playing a hand in her ouster.
Indian news outlet The Print in an article today said it had seen the message conveyed to Hasina’s Awami League supporters. India’s Economic Times also carried an article about the message, which The Daily Frontline has not been able to independently verify.
“I could have remained in power if I had left St Martin and the Bay of Bengal to America,” she said in the message.
According to The Print, the Hasina government saw strained relations with the US for many years. Ahead of January’s elections this year, she said “a white man” had offered her a smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.
Hasina also warned the new interim government not to be “used” by such foreign powers.
Led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, the new interim government was sworn in on Thursday night, three days after Hasina’s ouster.
“I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over your [students’] bodies, I did not allow it. I came with power,” read Hasina’s statement.
“Maybe if I was in the country today, more lives would have been lost, more wealth would have been destroyed,” she added.
She is also expected to address the media while in India next week, The Print article said.
Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled Bangladesh on August 5, when a student-led protest culminated in a mass uprising against her Awami League government.
More than 400 people were killed in the preceding three weeks, a majority of them in police firing and firing by Awami League activists.
The US is Bangladesh’s largest foreign direct investor.
In her message to supporters and party cadres, she vowed to return to the country, though accepting her defeat.
“I will return soon inshAllah. The defeat is mine but the victory is [that of] the people of Bangladesh,” she stated.
“I removed myself, I came with your victory, you were my strength, you did not want me, I myself then left, resigned. My workers who are there, no one will lose morale. Awami League has stood up again and again,” she added, according to The Print.
The former prime minister also accused people of distorting her words.
“I want to repeat to my young students, I never called you Razakars … My words have been distorted. A group has taken advantage of your danger,” she said in the message.
The term “Razakar” is considered to be derogatory in Bangladesh as it refers to ‘volunteers’ who collaborated with the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence.
The government has appointed internationally renowned human rights advocate Irene Khan as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations, granting her the rank of state minister.
The Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification on Wednesday confirming her contractual appointment.
According to the notification, Irene Khan will receive the rank, salary, allowances and other benefits of a state minister while serving as Bangladesh’s permanent representative and ambassador to the UN.
She will succeed Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, the current permanent representative to Bangladesh’s UN Mission. Foreign ministry officials said Chowdhury is set to become the country’s next foreign secretary.
Khan has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression since Aug 1, 2020, becoming the first woman to hold the mandate since it was established in 1993.
An internationally recognised advocate for human rights, gender equality and social justice, she also teaches at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
She was secretary general of London-based Amnesty International from 2001 to 2009, becoming the first woman to lead the global human rights organisation. During her tenure, Amnesty expanded its work on economic, social and cultural rights alongside political and civil rights, and launched its first global campaign to end violence against women and girls.
From 2012 to 2019, Khan headed the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the rule of law and sustainable development.
She previously served as a visiting professor at the State University of New York Law School in 2011 and as chancellor of the University of Salford in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2015.
Khan began her professional career with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she worked for 21 years in headquarters and field operations, including as chief of mission in India.
She has also served on the World Bank Gender Advisory Council, the UNAIDS High Level Panel on HIV Prevention and Human Rights, and the UN Global Compact Advisory Council. She has been a governing board member of the Overseas Development Institute in the UK, BRAC and Uganda-based Barefoot Law.
Born in Bangladesh, Khan studied at University of Manchester and Harvard Law School. She has received several international honours, including the Sydney Peace Prize, for her contribution to human rights.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh extends curbs on govt-funded foreign travel, tightens rules on official vehicle purchases
The government has extended restrictions on government-funded overseas travel for public officials in the ongoing fiscal year and tightened rules on the purchase of official vehicles as part of efforts to reduce public expenditure.
The Finance Division issued a notification on Wednesday saying the measures are aimed at ensuring the proper use of limited public resources, bringing inflation to a tolerable level and maintaining macroeconomic stability.
Under the directive, government officials and employees will continue to be barred from attending seminars, symposiums and workshops abroad at government expense.
The notification also imposes stricter controls on the purchase of vehicles under both development and operational budgets.
Only vehicles included in the approved Table of Organisation and Equipment (TO&E) that are more than 10 years old may be replaced, it said.
New government institutions will require prior approval from the Finance Division before purchasing TO&E-listed vehicles.
The Finance Division also instructed all government agencies to suspend expenditure from all types of block allocations.
Funding for the purchase of all categories of vehicles, including motor vehicles, watercraft and aircraft, has also been halted.
However, vehicles used for transporting personnel rather than for personal use may be replaced if they are more than a decade old.
Newly established government institutions may also procure such vehicles only with Finance Division approval.
The notification also states that, except for ambulances and vehicles used for security purposes, all replacement or newly purchased government cars and jeeps must be fully electric.
The government said the measures are intended to curb operational spending while supporting broader efforts to maintain fiscal discipline and economic stability.
Environment
Sovereign guarantees limit renegotiation of private power plant contracts: power minister
Power Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood has said the government’s ability to renegotiate costs, including capacity charges, under contracts signed with private power plants by the previous administration is limited because those agreements carry sovereign guarantees.
However, he told parliament on Wednesday that the government is negotiating with power producers to eliminate late payment fees on overdue bills.
The minister made the remarks while responding to a supplementary question from Jamaat lawmaker Mardia Mumtaz during the parliamentary session.
Mardia asked whether the government had a concrete plan to reduce capacity charges, which account for a significant share of electricity subsidies and overall power sector costs despite recent tariff increases.
In reply, Iqbal said the previous government had provided sovereign guarantees in contracts with private power companies.
“A sovereign guarantee is a guarantee by the state. Cancelling such guarantees requires a legal process that takes considerable time,” he said.
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