Finance Minister mute, inquiry into S Alam must run: Chunnu

Mujibul Haque Chunnu of JaPa and Finance Minister AHM Kamal. - UNB

Dhaka, Sept 5: Jatiya Party Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu on Monday described Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as a mute in Parliament.

"We have repeatedly told the Finance Minister that money is being smuggled from Bangladesh, take action," he said, while participating in an unscheduled discussion. "But the finance minister is a mute person, he does not speak. He did not make a statement in Parliament about money laundering. Journalists are not informed about the latest situation. I don't know how the country will run.”

Chunnu mostly spoke on the economy of Bangladesh, which he said is not doing well now. 

“There is a dollar crisis. The government is controlling imports while doing business. There is a reserve problem. Remittances are decreasing. We see in newspapers that money is being laundered,” he said.

The JaPa general secretary said that against this background of the economic situation in Bangladesh, the name of a big businessman who owns several banks has come up in the context of possible money laundering. 

“He has markets and hotels in Singapore with the citizenship of another country. Spending one billion dollars,” Chunnu continued, leaving no more doubt that the reference was to the chairman of S Alam Group, Md Saiful Alam, on whom the Daily Star published a bombshell expose recently. 

Chunnu said he is accused of laundering upto $1 billion. 

“I don't know if this is true, if it is, then it is anti-state -treason. A writ was filed in the High Court. The High Court also tasked the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate. Later the investigation was suspended by the order of the Appellate Division.”

Addressing the leader of the house Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Chunnu urged her to take it seriously. 

"Prime Minister, you instruct the finance minister to investigate the matter on an urgent basis to see if any Bangladeshi has actually gone and invested $1 billion dollars there.” He demanded an investigation.

He said these days if a farmer takes a loan and does not repay it, a warrant is issued. 

“Even if we recommend waiving the interest of farmers, it is not accepted. But I saw that interest of Tk 252 crore has been waived on a loan for NASSA group - despite the objection of an observer from Bangladesh Bank,” Chunnu said. - UNB