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Zia, Khaleda, Ershad sold the country, not AL: PM
Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina today told the parliament that the Awami League doesn't sell the country rather Khaleda Zia, Ershad and Ziaur Rahman did it.
"Who had sold the country? It had done by Khaleda Zia, Ershad and Ziaur Rahman. They had sold the country. The Awami League doesn't sell the country," she said.
In this regard, she referred to several incidents during the period of the trio that included giving a bond for selling Bangladesh's gas to India by Khaleda Zia prior to 2001 general elections.
She made the remarks while giving valedictory speech in the third and budget session of the 12th parliament with Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair. The Prime Minister came down heavily on some opposition parties who have been making blanket allegations of selling the country to India over signing of some MoUs during her recent India visit, reports BSS.
She told the parliament that they did not come to power in 2001.
"Why didn't we come to power? We didn't come to power as we didn't agree with the American company which was extracting our gas (at that time), wanted to sell that to India," she said.
She continued: "I was deadly against the selling of gas while Khaleda Zia gave her consent to sell the gas."
As a result, Awami League had failed to form the government in 2001 despite getting majority of the votes, she said.