BANGLADESH

Finance minister A M A Muhith is spreading confusion over the Padma bridge project, BNP acting secretary-general says.

"The World Bank says there has been corruption in the project and sent a letter to the government suspending its fund for it. On the other hand the finance minister is creating a smoke screen by saying that there was no corruption in the project," Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Friday.

"He (Muhith) is embellishing to protect himself," he added.

He claimed that prime minister Sheikh Hasina was trying to save her 'corrupted' ministers.

Fakhrul was speaking with reporters after placing wreaths, with opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque, on BNP founder Ziaur Rahman's grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

Farroque, who returned from the US recently, said, "I am undergoing treatment in the US. The government filed a false case against me on the 6th of July. I returned to appear before the court hearing of the case."

"Even though I am yet to recover, I returned in respect of the law."

During the July 6 general strike imposed by BNP, Farroque was injured critically in an attack by police. He went to the US for treatment on July 13.

Asked about BNP's stance in the Narayanganj City Corporation polls, the acting secretary-general of the party said, "It's a local government election. There is no chance for any party to support anyone there. We don't want to talk about this."

He also demanded restoration of the caretaker government system and said, "People took to the street for the demand. The road march to Sylhet is proof. You (the government) have time…leave power soon and hold election under a non-partisan government."

The acting general secretary of ruling Awami League has declined to comment on three of his party colleagues voicing support for Narayanganj mayor candidate Shamim Osman.

When journalists asked him on Friday about the party's three organising secretaries' visiting the Narayanganj district party office and making dubious announcements supporting Shamim, Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif said, "Someone might have gone there. But I don't know if they had made any announcements."

"As the Awami League (acting) spokesperson, it would be inappropriate for me to talk about that," he said at the party headquarters.

Former Narayanganj MP Shamim and former Narayanganj municipality mayor Selina Hayat Ivy of Awami League are among the six mayoral candidates for the first Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) elections.

Awami League leadership, including the head, prime minister Sheikh Hasina, held several meetings with both to convince one of them to withdraw nomination, but failed.

Neither of them withdrew candidature until Wednesday, the deadline for withdrawal of nomination.

Osman is running with wall-clock symbol while Selina has inkpot-pen.

"There is no scope of party interventions in a local government election. Even then, we had advised the two candidates to reach an agreement. They failed to do that," Hanif said.

He said NCC election is the first one after the 15th Amendment abolished the caretaker government system.

"The [election] commission is conducting the polls independently. We'll not do anything that violates the code," he said.