A new president will be appointed within 90 days of the office falling vacant, as the constitution requires, Law Minister Md Asaduzzaman has said.
He said that under article 123(2) of the constitution the appointment of a president is a constitutional obligation and the process will be completed within the set deadline. Asked whether any action would be taken against the outgoing president Md Sahabuddin, the minister said the government will decide on the outgoing president after reviewing everything. “You must place this much trust in the head of government and in us,” he said.
He made the remarks in reply to journalists’ questions at noon on Sunday after opening a training programme for new lawyers at the Chattogram District Bar Association auditorium.
Earlier, in his address as chief guest at the event, the law minister claimed that 234 billion US dollars had been illegally siphoned abroad from Bangladesh through recorded means over the past 16 years.
He said that according to information in a report by the international magazine Time, an average of about 16 billion dollars a year was siphoned abroad. He also alleged that there had been extensive looting in the name of development projects during the previous government.
Citing the example of an LGED project worth about three and a half thousand crore taka in Pirojpur, the minister said that although the work was shown as completed on paper, in reality no work had been done. Taking a firm stand against corruption, he called on the judiciary, lawyers and state institutions to work together to establish the rule of law and build an accountable state.
The event, chaired by the president of the Chattogram District Bar Association, Tarik Ahmed, was attended as special guests by the mayor of Chattogram City Corporation, Dr Shahadat Hossain; the member of parliament for Chattogram-9, Mohammad Abu Sufian; district and sessions judge Kazi Abdul Hannan; metropolitan sessions judge Md Hasanul Islam; chief metropolitan magistrate A G M Monirul Hasan Sarkar; chief judicial magistrate Md Sohag Talukder; deputy commissioner Mohammad Zahidul Islam Mia; and a member of the ad hoc committee of the Bangladesh Bar Council, Mohammad Nazim Uddin Chowdhury.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report