Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanded an explanation from Jatiya Party ministers why their party chief chairman remains silent on the harassments they faced during the 1991-96 BNP regime.
She came down hard on the Jatiya Party, the opposition in parliament but with members in government, during the weekly Cabinet meeting on Monday, several ministers confirmed on condition of anonymity.
Hasina said Jatiya Party supporters were severely harassed by the BNP but HM Ershad doesn’t speak about it at all.
Jatiya Party leader and State Minister Mojibul Haque Chunnu defended his party chief Ershad, a former military dictator, by saying that he does raise the issue in rallies and party events.
Awami League and Jatiya Party are allies, but in the election year, JP chief Ershad often criticises the way AL runs the country.
The prime minister instructed Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque and State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki to work together to fetch a win in the upcoming Gazipur city corporation polls.
Haque and Chumki are both lawmakers from Gazipur.
A source said, the prime minister also instructed the ministers to inform another Gazipur lawmaker Zahid Ahsan Rusel to work with them.
Hasina felt that if everybody works together then Awami League will win in Gazipur election, the way it did in Khulna, said the source.
She told Mozammel Haque to ignore who is the candidate and work for the party and asked Chumki to involve her supporters in the election process.