Govt’s abstention from UN vote on Syria contradicts rights principles: BNP

BNP standing committee members have slammed the government for abstaining from voting in the UN resolution on the disappearance of 130,000 Syrians and said it is contrary to human rights principles.

At a virtual meeting on Monday, the BNP policymakers also termed anti-democratic and anti-good governance the government's move to extend the tenure of bank directors from 9 to 12 years by amending the Bank Company Act,

A press release, signed by BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said Bangladesh abstained from voting in the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on a mechanism to help families of 130,000 disappeared Syrians with means to know the whereabouts of their relatives and beloved ones.

"The resolution was adopted by the majority of the members in the UN General Assembly. Abstention from voting in the resolution by Bangladesh is against the human rights principles," the meeting observed.

It said although Bangladesh was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Commission, the government abstained from voting on the matter. "It proved that the serious allegations of human rights violations against the current illegal government of Bangladesh in the international arena are not false. The meeting strongly condemned all human rights violations and anti-democratic activities by this illegal government"

The BNP standing committee meeting also opposed Bank Company (Amendment) Bill 2023 which was passed in the parliament on June 21 with the provision to extend the tenure of bank directors to 12 years.

"The meeting felt that the banking sector has been completely destroyed by creating anarchy in the banking system for a long time. Especially in the case of defaulted loans, the government is deliberately giving all kinds of benefits to the defaulters without taking any punitive actions by indulging in corruption," the press release reads.

The meeting observed that rescheduled loans, write-off loans, a huge amount of loans pending in the Finance Courts and many other bad loans are not being listed as defaulted loans.

According to government statistics, the meeting said the amount of defaulted loans was around Tk1.30 lakh crores. "But economists believe that the actual defaulted loans are more than Tk4 lakh crore as the above loans are not listed."

It alleged that the defaulted loans of oligarchs close to the government are kept hidden by repeatedly rescheduling and writing off. "This government is consciously destroying the banking sector. The meeting demanded the Bank Company (Amendment) Bill 2023."

The BNP policymakers slammed the government for its failure to ensure fair prices of rawhide of the sacrificial animals that ultimately affected the poor people.

They urged the government to take steps for ensuring fair prices of rawhides and lowering the growing prices of essentials.