Many former lawmakers and ministers of the ousted Awami League government, who amassed wealth abnormally, have fled or are now in hideouts since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, while their wealth remains unchecked by authorities.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, a statutory independent body responsible for scrutinising such anomalies, is still silent over the abnormal rise in wealth of lawmakers and ministers over the past three consecutive terms of the AL government.
The affidavits submitted by the candidates before the 12th parliament elections held on January 7 still await scrutiny, as the commission has yet to pay any attention to repeated calls from governance campaigners.
The affidavits show that the incomes and wealth of many candidates have been doubled, tripled, or even further increased during their stay in power over the years, raising doubt about the sources and methods of wealth accumulation.
Besides, the affidavits of some other candidates showed them as poor with no cars or houses, which also raised doubt about the veracity of the information.
A 2005 ruling by the High Court bench led by Justice Abdul Matin made the submission of affidavits with eight kinds of information compulsory for candidates in national elections.
Since the affidavits have been introduced, civil society and good governance campaigners have been alleging that no state agencies, including the ACC, Election Commission, and National Board of Revenue, have scrutinised the affidavits properly.
They alleged that without scrutiny by the relevant agencies, the entire practice of submitting affidavits became futile.
Former adviser to the caretaker government, M Hafizuddin Khan, said that the goal of the submission of election affidavits by candidates was not fulfilled as they were never brought under the scrutiny of the authorities concerned.
‘The truth will never be known if the affidavits remain unchecked and keep gathering dust,’ said the retired civil servant.
Analysing the affidavits of candidates for the 12th national election, Transparency International Bangladesh released a report before the January 7 polls that said that the election witnessed the highest number of candidates with movable or liquid assets of Tk 1 crore or more.
The figure was 571, up from 274 in the 2008 election. In 2018, the number of candidates with movable assets of over Tk 1 crore was 522.
Another TIB report said the annual income of former road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader increased from Tk 1.40 lakh in 2008 to Tk 38.07 lakh in 2024, and former minister Dipu Moni’s income increased from Tk 3 lakh in 2008, to Tk 1.23 crore in 2024.
The liquid assets of former lawmaker Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury increased by 8,324 per cent from Tk 55 lakh in 2008 to Tk 56.12 crore in 2024.
The movable wealth of former lawmaker Meher Afroze Chumki increased by 7,692.31 per cent from Tk 43 lakh in 2008 to Tk 33.79 crore in 15 years.
The assets of former food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder increased by 6,350.18 per cent from Tk 14 lakh in 2008 to Tk 9.27 crore in 2024, and the liquid wealth of former finance minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali increased by 6138.66 per cent from Tk 26 lakh in 2008 to Tk 16.03 crore in 2024.
The movable assets of former food minister Md Kamrul Islam increased by 5,390.93 per cent from Tk 9 lakh in 2008 to Tk 4.69 crore in 2024.
The movable assets of former minister Hasanul Haque Inu increased by 4,723.43 per cent from Tk 12 lakh in 2008 to Tk 5.55 crore in 2024.
The movable wealth of former foreign minister Mohammad Hasan Mahmud increased by 4,683.21 per cent from Tk 3.10 lakh to Tk 10.18 crore in 2024.
The movable wealth of former lawmaker Benazir Ahmed increased by 4,197 per cent from Tk 11 lakh in 2008 to Tk 4.79 crore in 2024.
The TIB findings show as many as 18 candidates have movable or liquid assets worth over Tk 100 crore. They include former jute minister Golam Dastagir Gazi with Tk 1,345.77 crore, independent candidate SAK Ekramuzzaman with Tk 421.16 crore, prime minister’s adviser Salman F Rahman with Tk 315.76 crore, and AL candidate Abu Zafar Mohammad Shafi Uddin with Tk 306.68 crore.
Former law minister Anisul Huq saw his wealth go up by 1,063 per cent in the past five years, the highest among the ministers and state ministers, while former minister Tipu Munshi saw the highest bump in income among ministers since 2018, with his annual income increasing by 2,131.12 per cent.
Anwar Hossain, a candidate from Pirojpur-2, has seen the highest increase in income over the past 15 years, with his annual earnings increasing by 7,116.3 per cent.
The TIB report shows that the candidates possessing between Tk 200 crore and Tk 300 crore in liquid assets include Yusuf Abdullah Harun from Cumilla-3 (Tk 277.61 crore), Dilip Kumar Agarwala from Chuadanga-1 (Tk 276.19 crore), Abdul Momin Mondol from Sirajganj-5 [Tk 253.24 crore], and Gazi Golam Mortoza of Narayanganj-1 [Tk 233 crore].
Abdul Kader Azad from Faridpur-3, Sirajul Islam Mollah from Narsingdi-3, Sayeed Khokon from Dhaka-6, Selima Ahmed from Cumilla-2, Mahmuda Begum and Muhammad Abdullah from Lakshmipur-4, Afruza Bari from Gaibandha-1, Nur Mohammed from Jamalpur-1, Dewan Zahid Ahmed from Manikganj-2, and finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal from Cumilla-10 have between Tk 100 crore and Tk 200 crore in movable wealth.
The TIB also said that they have reliable information about a minister [former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed], who was also an AL candidate in the January 7 election, and his wife having joint ownership of six companies abroad that include, among others, real estate businesses, but he did not declare these ownerships worth Tk 2,000 crore in his affidavit.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman told New Age that it was the responsibility of the state agencies, including the ACC, to look into the abnormal increase in wealth of the candidates in the polls.
‘The institutions should investigate the wealth of candidates spontaneously, but they do not do it even after different organisations released the data,’ he added.
He said that the Election Commission also did not take any steps, even though they submitted a report about the mismatch of information in candidates’ affidavits.
In addition to mentioning the rise in wealth, many former lawmakers and ministers also mentioned the unusually low prices of their movable and immovable properties in their election affidavits.
Former social welfare minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed, in his affidavit, showed that the prices of his 25 bigha plots were only Tk 31,500.
Zahid Faruk, former state minister for water resources, has a flat in Baridhara DOHS, whose value was shown to be only Tk 1.3 lakh.
Former finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s wife owns an eight-storey building in the Gulshan-2 area, and its value was shown to be only Tk 35 lakh.
The former state minister for youth and sports, Zahid Ahsan Russell, showed that the value of his wife’s 148 bhoris of gold is only Tk 40,000.
Former minister Quamrul Islam showed the value of his four-katha land in Mirpur at Tk 3.61 lakh and that of his 10-katha land in Purbachal at Tk 39.48 lakh. The value of his two flats on 1.75 katha of land was shown as only Tk 4.36 lakh.
Like them, many candidates listed their high-value assets at such a low price.
Before the 12th parliament polls, ACC chairman Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah told journalists twice—first in March 2023 and second time on January 1—that they would investigate the affidavits.
However, seven months have elapsed since the national elections held on January 7, but there has been no visible step by the commission.
ACC secretary Khorseda Yasmeen told New Age on Sunday they would not carry out any inquiry and investigation over the election affidavits of the candidates spontaneously until they received specific allegations of amassing illegal wealth by any candidate.
However, if there was an allegation against any former lawmakers or former ministers over accumulating illegal wealth, they would take action as per law, she said.
Against the backdrop, Supreme Court lawyer Sarwar Hossain applied with the ACC chairman seeking an investigation into the abnormal rise in wealth of 65 former lawmakers and ministers mentioned in their election affidavits.
New Age