ZCZC
BSS-54
PM-POLLS 2 DHAKA
Polls-time government:
Asked if the polls time cabinet would be downsized, the premier said she
had talked to the President on the issue and the opposition leader.
“I told her (opposition leader) that we could do it (reconstitute the
cabinet during polls time) in the way you want”,” Sheikh Hasina said adding
that the existing cabinet comprised representatives of parties having stake
in parliament despite the Awami League’s two-third majority.
The premier, however, said “I don’t’ know whether a smaller cabinet is
needed” and feared that the projects being implemented and expected to be
completed in next two or three months could be upset if the cabinet size was
shrink.
“I don’t’ know whether the work of these schemes is disrupted if the
ministers are excluded from the cabinet” while the government wanted to
finish these projects quickly, she said.
The premier said all her cabinet colleagues were working for implementing
the projects while “we are approving a huge number of projects everyday and
implementing those speedily”.
“The question is that whether there will be any obstruction to development
(if the cabinet is downsized) and we are still thinking about it,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said she also reviewed the polls time practices of
parliamentary democracies like Australia, New Zealand, Britain and India and
found that “they don’t change the cabinet during polls time and their leaders
said cabinet reconstitution during polls time was needless”.
“(Yet) let’s see what happens, if the opposition demands then we will
change and if they don’t demand, there is nothing to do,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said before the 2014 election her government wanted to form
the polls-time government comprising all parties while Begum Khaleda Zia was
the opposition leader.
“I asked her that let’s form cabinet together and I was ready to give them
any ministry but they didn’t come at that time . . . but we formed a small
cabinet with members of other opposition parties and completed the election,”
the premier said.
MORE/SH/AR/2027 hrs