Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina on Thursday slammed her critics, saying as long as the people of the country are by her side she does not care.
The premier said this while delivering the closing speech at the second session of the 12th parliament yesterday. Speaker of the House Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury chaired the session.
“You should admit that the people of the country are getting benefits from the development works that we have done in our tenure. But if every action is questioned just for the sake of it then what can one do? You can’t keep me away from the people. One of my strengths is my people. I will move ahead with this strength.
The premier, who is also the president of the ruling Awami League said: “A belief has been created among the people that I am working for their welfare. That trust is my only asset. I will move ahead with this asset. That’s why I don’t care about anyone.”
Sheikh Hasina said: “I know the same things happened with my father. He served this country with his fullest effort but several attempts were made to isolate him from the people through criticism. When they failed in their intentions they killed him.”
The PM mentioned the assassination attempts made on her, saying: “There have been repeated attempts to assassinate me but I survived. My party leaders and the people of Bangladesh have always saved me. They saved my life by sacrificing their lives. Now I want to work for the people of my country,”
In her closing speech the premier highlighted and compared the sector-wise development of the country.
The PM said: “Others who held state power for the last 29 years failed to achieve the kind of development that we carried out in the last 15 years.”
“When we assumed power in 1996, the country had a capacity of 1600MW of power production and now we are producing 16000MW of power.”
Earlier in the day, the opposition leader in the house G M Quader, speaking in parliament, criticized the government on various issues.