Dhaka, Aug 10 : Sheikh Hasina did not officially resign as prime minister of Bangladesh before fleeing the country on August 5 amid massive anti-government protests, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told Reuters on Saturday.
“My mother never officially resigned. She didn’t get the time,” Sajeeb Wazed Joy told Reuters from Washington.
“She had planned to make a statement and submit her resignation. But then the protesters started marching on the prime minister’s residence. And there was no time. My mother wasn’t even packed. As far as the constitution goes, she is still the prime minister of Bangladesh,” he said.
Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 following massive anti-government protests triggered by the deaths of over 200 people in clashes with law enforcement agencies. The protests that initially started last month against a quota in government jobs morphed into a movement to oust the PM. Hasina is living in New Delhi at a safe house since her arrival in India.
In Dhaka, an interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Prof Mohd Yunus was sworn in on Thursday, under the army’s control.
Hasina’s son said though the Bangladesh president had dissolved parliament after consulting with military chiefs and opposition politicians, the formation of a caretaker government without the prime minister having actually formally resigned “can be challenged in court”.
He said Hasina’s Awami League party would contest the next election, which he said must be held within three months.
UNI
