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Hasina returns, blasts govt for hiking perks of PM, ministers

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked if the ruling alliance had that much confidence then why do they not accept the opposition's demand for reforms in electoral and caretaker government systems and call an early general election.
Hasina, also the leader of the opposition, said this in response to a recent speech by the prime minister. In a public rally on Wednesday, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said people would once again vote the four-party alliance in the next election.
Hasina
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"If the prime minister has such confidence, then why isn't she arranging early polls, agreeing to the opposition's demand," Hasina told newsmen at Zia International Airport. She returned from the US after a 19-day visit for treatment of her ears, damaged in the August 21 grenade blasts.
"Arrange an early election and see what people are going to decide," she added.
She bitterly criticised the government for increasing salaries of the prime minister and her cabinet members for the second time at a time when prices of essentials are 'spiralling out of the reach of the commoners'.
"Plunging people into even more misery, the prime minister is now raising her salaries."
On presidential clemency to the ruling BNP leader Jhintu, the opposition leader said the clemency order has been given on political grounds on prime ministerial instructions and said that it would encourage killers.
"She [prime minister] will have to explain to the nation on what grounds the mercy has been granted," she observed.
Describing the government as a 'protector of killers', Hasina said about 30,000 cases lodged against criminals have been withdrawn.
The former prime minister alleged that, sensing defeat in the next general election, the BNP has long been conspiring to rig the polls. "And as part of that conspiracy, they have been killing the prospective and popular leaders of Awami League," she said
Referring to the August 21 carnage, and the killings of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and Ahsanullah Master, the AL chief said, "The real culprits in these crimes are still at large. If neutral enquiries are allowed, the prime minister, her son, the state minister for home affairs and many others of the BNP-Jamaat alliance will be found guilty," she said.
Senior leaders of the party and front organisations gathered at the airport to welcome Hasina.