Former BAIRA vice-president and head of Shammilito Shamannay Front Shafiqul Alam Firoz made the allegation at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) in the city.
He said, “On August 14, Salman F Rahman invited me and my committee to his office and told us that there will be no BAIRA election, rather the new committee will be chosen based on compromise.”
He also claimed that in the presence of several present and former BAIRA leaders, Salman told them that the Prime Minister expressed her desire to keep the immediate-past committee headed by previous president Benjir Ahmed to be reelected in 2018-2020 again.
Firoz also said that Benjir is new in the recruiting business and does not have previous experience of exporting manpower abroad. He had won the previous election unopposed and wished to do the same this time as well.
According to Firoz, the general members of BAIRA will not stand for a one-sided poll. He also believes there was no directive from Prime Minister as such.
He also blamed the Benjir-led agencies for setting up a syndicate and violating recruitment and manpower export laws, the result of which was the latest episode with the Malaysian government.
BAIRA’s present committee's (2016-2018) tenure was supposed to end on July 12 this year, with the next executive committee was scheduled to be elected on June 24.
In response to a letter of Baira President Benjir Ahmed on April 3, the commerce ministry, in an order on May 8, extended the tenure of the committee till March 31, 2019 on the grounds of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, rainy reason, Eid-ul-Azha and upcoming national election.
But later following a supplementary petition, on July 4 the High Court asked to hold the election within September 20, which BAIRA counter-filed a petition again at the Supreme Court, but to no avail.