We were not consulted before US deal: Jamaat

Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman has said his party was not consulted on agreements signed with different countries during the tenure of the interim government.

“Several agreements were signed with different countries during the tenure of the previous interim government. Unfortunately, the government did not consult us in any way regarding those deals,” he wrote in a post on his verified Facebook account yesterday.

Shafiqur said Jamaat had repeatedly demanded that, in the absence of a parliament, the interim administration should consult political parties before taking decisions on major issues such as international agreements, as it had done on several other national matters.

“However, the government at the time did not take our demands into consideration. Our position on the matter is therefore clear, and there is no room for confusion,” he added.

His remarks came amid controversy over comments by Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who earlier said consent had been obtained from two major political parties — BNP and Jamaat — before signing a trade agreement with the United States.

Speaking at a briefing after a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Paul Kapur on Wednesday, Khalilur said the US trade representative had spoken with the heads of the country’s two main parties before the election and received their consent.

“So it’s not that we did this in the dark,” he said.

Before the agreement was signed, Khalilur, who served as national security adviser in the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, played a key role in negotiations with the United States on behalf of Bangladesh.

Shafiqur’s statement yesterday marked Jamaat’s first formal response to the issue.

PROTEST

Jamaat yesterday brought out a protest procession demanding that Khalilur and former interim government adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan be questioned over allegations of “election engineering” in the 13th parliamentary polls.

Leaders and activists of the party’s Dhaka city units held a brief rally at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque after Juma prayers before bringing out the procession.

Addressing the programme, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar said, “Is there any opposition party in the country other than Jamaat-e-Islami? You (Rizwana Hasan) said those who are now in the opposition were not allowed to enter the mainstream.

“We believe you could not have carried out the engineering alone. Reveal the names of others who were involved.”

A day earlier, Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher alleged that Khalilur had played a role in the alleged election engineering and raised the same allegation against Rizwana.

Meanwhile, leaders of Jamaat and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis yesterday signed the condolence book for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Iranian embassy in Dhaka. Khamenei was killed in a US-Israel attack in Tehran earlier this week.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/we-were-not-consulted-us-deal-jamaat-4122506