Investigation
The all-party parliamentary probe committee that has investigated the allegations of corruption against former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain, has done a commendable job.
The findings of the committee have helped the people to know about the way taxpayer's money has been looted by people holding important positions. The most astonishing has been this particular finding, whereby we have come to know that, "the former speaker wasted a good amount of public money by appointing 42 staffs for parliamentary standing committees and gave them salaries for eight months even though parliament was non-existent in that period!"(DS July 2, 2009).
Many other sub-committees have been formed by different standing committees to investigate, in most of the cases, corruption that took place "only" during the tenure of the 4-party led alliance government and the immediate past caretaker government. However, these committees have not been assigned to look into any allegations or irregularities that may have taken place during the previous tenure of the incumbent government (i.e.1996-2001). And this does not bode well for the country's democratic culture.
While it is very much important that allegations of corruption be investigated, regardless of the period they took place, for the sake of transparency and accountability, only investigating the allegations of the opposition parties and not paying attention to any past misdeeds of the government's previous tenure will not be acceptable to the general people. Similarly, if the incumbent opposition comes to power next time, they are also most likely to only find out irregularities of the last government. However, what is required is a change in this mindset and attitude of our political leaders.
We see that only cases against the AL leaders are now being withdrawn and the opposition during its rule also withdrew 76 cases filed against one of its controversial leader. We look for an end to such a partisan approach.
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