Bangladeshi army-led joint forces net former ministers, secretaries on corruption charges

Bangladeshi army-led joint forces netted more former ministers, politicians on charges of corruption as 72-hour deadline expires Sunday to submit account of their wealth.

A senior police officer said former Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister and former main opposition Awami League senior leader Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, former Secretary to the Power Ministry ANH Akhtar Hossain and Dhaka City Corporation Commissioner Abdul Quayum among many were arrested when they came to submit their statements on wealth to the anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Office Sunday morning.

The officer who asked not to be named told Xinhua some former ministers and members of parliament who are on the list of 50 corrupts prepared by the current interim caretaker government are on the way to ACC office to submit their statements of wealth and they were arrested.

The ACC that has been reconstituted with former army chief Hassan Mashhud Chowdhury as chairman is now spearheading a combat against the corruption at the instruction of the caretaker government to clean up the slate before going for holding the stalled parliamentary elections originally scheduled for Jan. 22. However, the elections were postponed for indefinite period following the imposition of the state of emergency on Jan. 11.

Earlier, the joint forces rounded up nearly 30 ex-ministers, MPs and businessmen during the crackdown on corruption and sent them to jail to face trial.

According to Bangladeshi constitution, a caretaker government supervises the country's general elections. The former ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four-party government led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia ended its five-year tenure on Oct. 27, 2006 and handed over power to caretaker government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed.

As the two major parties, BNP and Awami League led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina couldn't make consensus on a series of problems, the political crisis deteriorated in the country. Under this situation, President Ahmed had to declare state of emergency and resigned from the post of chief advisor on Jan. 11, and former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed took oath as the new chief advisor of caretaker government on Jan. 12.

Source: Xinhua