Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has flayed the move making transport workers’ leader Shajahan Khan the chief of a government committee to bring order to roads saying that the panel is marred by conflict of interest.
In a statement on Tuesday (Feb 19), it said, “It’s impossible to hope that the committee, which is led by an influential leader (Shajahan Khan) of transport owners and workers’ bodies together with his past controversial role and biased behaviour, can perform its duty neutrally and independently.
“Amid the huge loss of lives and properties due to road crash, there is apparently no government move to prevent it and the process of the committee formation made the government’s will questionable,” it reads.
On Sunday (Feb 17), the government formed a 15-member panel, headed by lawmaker Shajahan Khan with the task to recommend on preventing road crashes and bringing discipline in the runaway transport sector.
Shajahan, the executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation, had sparked widespread criticism in the past for his remarks and actions on road safety.
The organisation he leads is the umbrella for over 200 transport unions across the country, representing more than 6 million workers.
Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association President Mashiur Rahman Ranga is in the committee as a member.
Four other members of the panel are also involved in the transport sector — Workers’ Federation General Secretary Osman Ali, Owners’ Association General Secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah and two representatives from the bodies of truck owners and workers.
Ruling MP Shajahan was a divided figure during his tenure as the shipping minister due to his dual role as a transport workers’ leader and a cabinet member, which was frequently cited as a conflict of interest whenever transport reforms were discussed.
Following the deaths of filmmaker Tareque Masud and ATN News CEO Mishuk Munier in a 2011 road accident, Shajahan said a driver does not need to be educated to get a driving licence.
“If a driver can sign his name, can understand traffic signs and signals, can differentiate between a cow and a goat and has good driving skills, what is the problem in giving him a licence?,” he said during a press conference.
In August 2018, after two schoolchildren were run over by a bus on the Airport Road in Dhaka, several reporters asked him about the lax regulations for bus drivers being a huge factor for road accidents, which the minister appeared to laugh off.
When a video of him laughing off the deaths of two went viral on the internet, there were widespread calls for his resignation, soon followed by a spontaneous protest by students demanding road safety.
Following the protesters’ demands, the government passed the long-awaited Road Transport Act, but the transport workers have objected to several parts of the law and are demanding they be cancelled.
The demands include making all offences under the Road Transport Act bailable, the cancellation of the provision that allows a worker to be fined Tk 500,000 for involvement in a road crash, and lowering minimum educational qualification required for obtaining driving licences from class VIII to class V.

Also read

Widespread scepticism over road safety panel

Obaidul Quader faces question in House over Shajahan-led panel