HT Imam's comments irk Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday came down hard on her Political Affairs Adviser HT Imam for his comments on BCS exams and role of the administration in the January 5 national elections.

Hasina castigated the adviser at a meeting of the Awami League Parliamentary Board held at the PM's official residence -- Gono Bhaban.

The ALPB members too reprimanded Imam for his comments, meeting sources told The Daily Star, preferring anonymity.

Imam's speech, the ALPB members commented, is not acceptable under any circumstance as he has given a weapon to the BNP and others to speak against the January 5 elections.

HT Imam, at a discussion at Dhaka University on Wednesday, said if members of Bangladesh Chhatra League, student front of the AL, pass the written test for recruitments in public services, the party leaders would help them with the viva voce.

He also said many pro-AL officials, before the January 5 polls, were inducted into mobile courts and this helped the government hold the election despite the BNP-Jamaat's bid to thwart it. "They [pro-AL officials] stood beside us."

Imam's speech called the government's achievements into question, sources quoted AL leaders as saying.