Sheikh Hasina.
Credit: PTI Photo
Dhaka: Bangladesh's President Mohammed Shahabuddin has said that he does not have any documentary evidence of Sheikh Hasina resigning as prime minister before she fled the country in August amidst student-led mass protests.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, became Bangladesh's interim government's Chief Adviser on August 8 after Prime Minister Hasina fled to India on August 5.
President Shahabuddin said he heard that Hasina had resigned as prime minister before she fled Bangladesh, but he does not have documentary evidence, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported on Monday, quoting excerpts from his interview with Bangla daily Manab Zamin.
Despite numerous efforts, the president said, he had failed to find any documents. “Perhaps she did not have the time,” Shahabuddin said.
Narrating the events of August 5, he said that at around 10:30 am, a call came to Bangabhaban from Hasina's residence, informing him that Hasina would meet him.
“Hearing this, preparations began at Bangabhaban. Within an hour, another call came, saying she was not coming,” the president said.
"There was news of unrest everywhere...I asked my military secretary, General Adil (Major General Mohammad Adil Choudhury), to look into it. He also had no information. We were waiting and checking the TV scrolls. There was no news anywhere. At one point, I heard that she (Hasina) had left the country without informing me. I am telling you the truth as it is.
“When the army chief, General Waker, came to Bangabhaban, I tried to find out whether the prime minister had resigned. The answer was the same: he heard she had resigned but probably did not get the time to inform us. When everything was under control, one day, the cabinet secretary came to collect a copy of the resignation letter. I told him I was also looking for it,” Shahabuddin said.
He said there was no point in debating this anymore; Hasina has left, and that is the truth.
"Still, to ensure that this question never arises again, I sought the opinion of the Supreme Court," Shahabuddin said.
In response, the apex court said that in the emerging situation, an interim government could be formed to eliminate the constitutional vacuum and facilitate smooth executive operations. It opined that the president could administer the oath to the chief adviser of the interim government and the advisory council, he said.
Meanwhile, Law Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul on Monday said that if the president claims, nearly two-and-a-half months later, that the former prime minister did not submit a resignation letter, this would be a form of self-contradiction.
On August 5, the president himself mentioned in a speech that he had received and accepted the resignation letter of Hasina, he said while responding to questions from journalists at the Secretariat on the President’s statement.
“It amounts to a violation of his oath because, in his speech to the nation on August 5 at 11:20 pm, flanked by the chiefs of the three armed forces, he (the president) explicitly stated that ‘Sheikh Hasina has submitted her resignation letter to me,’ and he accepted it. Afterwards, the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division was consulted to seek guidance on the next steps under Article 106 of the Constitution. The then chief justice and other judges provided an opinion,” Nazrul said.
“The first line of that opinion was, ‘Since the prime minister has resigned under the current circumstances...’. Following the prime minister’s resignation and the dissolution of Parliament by the president, we sent a note from the Ministry’s office to the president, based on the opinion of the Appellate Division, regarding the formation of an interim government. The president reviewed and accepted this opinion. He then proceeded to form an interim government himself,” he said.
Hasina's arch-rival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said that the president lied in his address to the nation about Hasina’s resignation as the prime minister of Bangladesh.
BNP vice chairman Zainul Abedin told reporters, "I would say the president made this statement two months after the formation of the government with a specific agenda. The president has lied."
The interview of the president with Manab Zamin was published in its political magazine "Janatar Chokh" on Saturday.