Kurigram Correspondent:
Md Zakir Hossain, State
Minister for Primary and Mass Education, has been knocked out of the race for
party nomination in the upcoming 12th National Assembly Elections.
He was elected the first MP from Kurigram 4 (Raumari-Rajibpur-Chilmari)
constituency in 2009 with the boat symbol. Later, in the 14th National Assembly
elections, he lost miserably to the Jatiya Party (JP) candidate, Ruhul Amin, a
bicycle icon.
Then in 2018, he was elected MP again with the party symbol boat and got the
responsibility of State Minister of Primary and Mass Education of the People's
Republic of Bangladesh.
After that his irregularities, corruption, nepotism and immoral activities
started. Among these, illegal occupation of government land in his
constituency, sale of sand worth millions of taka in the name of digging the
Brahmaputra River, was creating his own syndicate during the recruitment of
primary assistant teachers and grabbing crores of taka. When a video of
stealing money for hiring assistant teachers went viral on social media
recently, there was a storm of criticism about the minister in the area. Also,
although there are projects on paper, in reality, he stole money from numerous
invisible projects. Due to these controversial activities, on the one hand, the
image of the party is questioned by the people.
Minister Zakir Hossain hunted these corruptions of MP, Bangladesh Awami League
Central Committee member of information and research sub-committee Advocate
Biplab Hasan Palash and Roumari Upazila Awami League former vice-president
Shahidul Islam Shalu.
In such a situation, the local Awami League's long-tested and self-sacrificing
leaders and workers gradually withdrew from the party due to the arbitrary
behavior of the minister. Even under his ministerial power, no one dared to
open their mouths.
In such a context, during the liberation war of 1971, the factional conflict in
Rowmari Upazila Awami League, the only historically free area of the country,
reached an extreme level. Although the last upazila Awami League conference was
held, the central and district leaders present in the conference failed to
announce the full committee. Recently, 15 candidates seeking nomination of
Rowmari Upazila Awami League came together and submitted to the party's
nomination board the affidavit of State Minister for Primary and Mass Education
Md. Zakir Hossain in writing. And this is why State Minister for Primary and
Mass Education Zakir Hossain fell off the boat this time.
DCT/OL/SMKN/END
