Mojahid for stopping abuse of emergency

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid thinks the country's constitution can have an article to prevent abuse of emergency provisions.

If people want, he said, the next parliament may consider this.

In an interview with The Daily Star on October 17, he alleged that the donor agencies interfered in the country's internal affairs last year to foil the parliamentary polls then scheduled for January 22.

The roles that some of them had played contributed to the nation's being in troubled waters, he observed in reference to the changeover of 1/11.

“The upcoming election is an internal matter of ours. None of the donors or development partners should meddle in it,” he said.Until recently, Mojahid has been the subject of intense speculations for how he kept attending different programmes in public despite an arrest warrant against him in Barapukuria graft case. At that time, police described him as a fugitive to the trial court.

Asked about the matter, the Jamaat leader said, “I'm innocent. I didn't commit anything wrongful and that's why I'm going about my normal activities.”

Two days later, the High Court asked him to surrender within two weeks to the trial court that had issued the warrant for his arrest.

At the same time, it directed the government not to harass or arrest Mojahid within that period.

About his much-talked about meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in jail, he said that was no formal meeting. “She [Khaleda] is our leader and it was necessary to know her views about matters regarding the election.

“We visited her with permission from the jail authorities, and it was possible because she had no objection to meeting me.”

Asked who had arranged the meeting, Mojahid said they wished to meet her when BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain applied for permission to visit the former prime minister in jail. “I won't say anymore about the matter.”

Queried, he declined to disclose the number of seats they are seeking to run for on the alliance ticket in December 18 polls. For the cancelled January 22 election, they got 34/35 seats.

“Five to six ministers have been dropped from the cabinet due to corruption at the beginning of the alliance rule. And I can assure you that we'll go tough on graft if voted back to power,” he said.

“The anti-corruption drive by the caretaker government has failed because the way they went about the task was wrong.”