BNP MP Rumeen Farhana on Sunday told Parliament that the fall of the present government is just a matter of time as different international reports have sounded the farewell bell to it. “All this sounded the farewell bell to the government. Its fall is just a matter of time,” she said, mentioning that the reports that different international organisations released in the last few years painted the grim pictures of Bangladesh clearly in various indexes. Rumeen made the remarks participating in the discussion over the thanksgiving motion on the President's Speech. Read: No rule of law in Bangladesh, says BNP MP Rumeen The destruction of the electoral system by the government, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and deaths in custody, suppression of dissenting parties and views, depoliticisation, making the judiciary subjugated under the Executive Department by erasing the separation of power and heinous corruption were reflected on the report of the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the USA, she said. Besides, the poor pictures of Bangladesh are clear in the reports published in different indexes, including democracy, human rights, civil liberty, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and election in the last few years by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, Bertelsmann Stiftung, V-Dem and the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Civicus, Reporters Without Borders, the World Justice Report and Transparency International, she said. Referring to the recent US sanction on seven officials of Rab, Rumeen said, “The situation is clear that the ban is not ending here.” She said 12 renowned human rights organisations, including the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, strongly demanded the United Nations take action against the deployment of RAB members in UN peacekeeping missions. The UN has also taken the issue under consideration, she added. “All the ministers, including the foreign minister, initially attacked the United States with very harsh words, but now their voices are low. Now it’s being said to examine our own problems and to hire lobbyists and law firms, if necessary,” the BNP MP said. Read: Under fire by BNP followers, Rumeen withdraws land application Rumeen said she saw in the newspaper that the parliamentary standing committee has given advice in this regard. “Interestingly, hiring a lobbyist firm is nothing new. The government has long been hiring lobbyist firms in America by spending crores of Taka with taxpayers’ money,” she said. The BNP MP said Awami League has taught Bangladesh about lobbying in the USA. The lobbying culture in Bangladesh politics was launched by Awami League. For the first time in the history of the country, the US Awami League paid more than US$ 1.25 million to a US lobbyist firm, Alcalde & Fay, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, she said.

Law Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday said BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is now free as she is not in government custody for sure. “She [Khaleda] is definitely free. She’s not obviously in our custody or in government custody. Staying here, she can definitely receive treatment anywhere as she wishes, and she’s doing so,” he told Parliament. The Law Minister said this in parliament replying to a remark made by BNP MP Rumeen Farhana who claimed in the House that “Khaleda Zia still remains in government custody.” Read: People won’t tolerate if Khaleda dies “without treatment”: BNP “If anything happens to the leader, the government will have to bear the full responsibility as she has been in government custody for the last three years. She’s still in government custody,” said Rumeen. She said the Law Minister earlier argued that Khaleda Zia would have to go back to jail for going abroad as there is no scope to reconsider a decided case in the same provision (section 401) of the Criminal Code of Procedures. Rumeen said, “But there’s nothing like this in section 401 of the Criminal Code of Procedures. The provision gives the government the unlimited authority to take any decision in this regard.”