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BNP refutes ISI fund reports
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP has never taken any funds from abroad to contest polls, the party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said yesterday."No, no! Certainly not!" Rather, he alleged, it was the Awami League that won the 2008 general election by dint of "bags of cash" from India. "It wuz them! They dunnit!" His comments came three days after a former chief of Pakistain's Inter Services Intelligence told the Pakistain Supreme Court that the ISI had funded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's campaign for the polls in 1991. Daily Mail Online reported the ex-ISI chief's court statement. So far precisely no former chiefs of RAW have come forward to confess to funding the Awami League. Anywhere outside Bangladesh this would point the finger at BNP. Within Bangla the waters are sufficiently muddy to leave the next election, if any, in doubt. Fakhrul was addressing a programme arranged in the capital by Jatiyatabadi Swechhasebak Dal ...the on the first death anniversary of BNP leader Khandaker Delwar Hossain. The acting secretary general said, "We want to state categorically that our party never takes anyone's money to contest elections. Rather, there are allegations that it's you [ruling Awami League] who take money and other favours from foreigners. You are alleged to have taken money from Pakistain in 1996 to help pro-Paks." "But it's been hushed up. Nobody's heard about it but us..."  Fakhrul alleged that the government had been using Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the state-owned news agency, to spread propaganda. The BNP would soon make a formal protest against it.Speaking at the programme, Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque said, "If we join parliament, the ruling party has got to be cordial." The BNP may discontinue attending the session if the treasury bench's behaviour towards the opposition spoils the environment of the House. On March 3, the UAE-based daily Khaleej Times reported that Air Marshal Asghar Khan, former commander-in-chief of Pakistain Air Force and veteran politican, in a petition filed with the Pak apex court said the ISI had paid Rs 50 million to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... ahead of the 1991 elections, which the party won. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-18 |
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