In a fit of rage at Parliament, Finance Minister AMA Muhith warned colleagues over referring to him as ‘a former Jatiya Party minister’.
He threw a bit of tantrum during Monday’s session, when the supplementary budget was passed. “I was neither a member nor a minister of Jatiya Party. I served under the martial law government of General Ershad.”
The 85-year-old grew testy, when Jatiya Party MP Selim Uddin referred to him as a former minister of JP. “The Jatiya Party did not even exist then and I expect everybody to keep that in mind otherwise, I will take appropriate actions against them.”
Soon after during the House discussion, JP lawmaker Kazi Feroze Rashid hit back at Muhith with the response, “There will be no place for such a knowledgeable person like you in Jatiya Party.”
He said, “The finance minister said he was not involved in Jatiya Party politics. We also want to say that he gave budgets under martial law government of General Ershad and it happened long before the party came into being.”
The lawmaker said the finance minister did not need to move the court for taking action.
Another Jatiya Party lawmaker Selim Uddin said, “The way he rapped us … that is no way to rebuke a colleague in such a manner.”
However, it’s not the first time Muhith was called a former JP minister by parliament colleagues.
In his response during last year’s budget session, the octogenarian minister said then, “
“I was not even a member of Jatiya Party, let alone a minister. HM Ershad declared in 1982 that he would form an interim non-partisan government. He formed the party after two years. When my opinion was sought about the party I expressed my desire to resign and later I did that. Everybody should know this. I am probably the only minister who got a farewell and I thanked Ershad. He is a nice man.”