The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, told her party colleagues on Saturday she would take action against the party’s former general secretary Abdul Jalil at an appropriate time, sources said. ‘I will take action against Jalil at an appropriate time,’ Hasina said at the maiden meeting of the party’s newly formed central working committee after many members demanded punishment of Jalil for his diatribe against the party leaders and casting aspersions on the validity of the last parliamentary elections.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting at Hasina’s Dhanmondi office, the AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, however, termed Jalil mentally imbalanced. ‘What action could be taken against a crackpot,’ he asked. Jalil, now the party’s advisory council member, on September 22 fired a broadside at the party leaders who were now in Hasina’s cabinet, accusing them all of having links with the military’s intelligence. He further alleged that the AL-led alliance had reached an understanding with the military-backed caretaker government before the elections. He, meanwhile, retracted his comments and said sorry.

Jalil issue dominated the AL working committee meeting on Saturday but it ended without any decision on him. At the meeting, Mohammad Nasim demanded that Jalil be asked to explain violation of the party discipline, meeting sources said. Hasina, however, interrupted Nasim. ‘What Jalil said in public, many of my party leaders said in their drawing rooms. I know them all but I have not taken action against them… I will take action against Jalil at an appropriate time,’ a working committee member quoted Hasina as saying.

The AL chief referred to the comments she had earlier made about Jalil’s remarks. When in New York, Hasina on September 24 said that Jalil should resign before questioning the election that made him a member of this parliament. After Saturday’s working committee meeting, Syed Ashraf said, ‘We came to know about Jalil’s statements from media reports. We will collect evidence if needed. We will decide when the evidence is in hand.’ Ashraf, however, escaped a question on whether Jalil’s seat in the parliament would be vacated as per the constitutional provision saying that it was not he [Ashraf] but Jalil who claimed himself to be mentally imbalanced. According to article 66 (2)(a) of the constitution, a person, who is declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind, is disqualified for being a member of the parliament.

Like Nasim, AL working committee members Abu Sayed Swapan, Tipu Munshi and Altaf Hossain demanded punishment of Jalil, sources said. Jubo League activists shouted slogans demanding action against Jalil outside the Dhanmondi office when Hasina arrived there at 10:30am. Nasim also demanded punishment of those who were responsible for January 11, 2007 political changeover. He also called for action against the persons who had tortured politicians in the name of anti-corruption drive by taskforces during the emergency, sources said.

-New Age