London, June 23: The niece of Bangladesh’s deposed former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, British MP Tulip Siddiq, on Monday accused the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in Dhaka of orchestrating a “smear campaign” to damage her reputation.
London-based Siddiq, who represents the UK capital’s Hampstead and Highgate constituency for the governing Labour Party, resigned as Treasury minister earlier this year after allegations of corruption against her family engulfed her.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) opened investigations into the member of Parliament in connection with the government of Sheikh Hasina, ousted after a massive student-led protest last year.
“The time has now come for the Chief Adviser [Yunus] and the ACC to abandon their wholly misconceived and unlawful campaign to smear Ms Siddiq’s reputation and interfere with her public service,” reads a letter sent by her lawyers to Yunus.
According to ‘Sky News’, which has seen the latest correspondence, Siddiq’s legal team claims the interim leader had unfairly prejudiced the investigations against her.
“The copious briefings to the media, the failure to respond to our letters, the failure to even ask to meet with and question Ms Siddiq during their recent visit to the United Kingdom are impossible to justify and completely inconsistent with a fair, lawful and serious investigation,” reads the letter.
Siddiq had sought a meeting with Yunus during his UK visit earlier this month, which the Chief Adviser turned down saying it involved a “legal process”.
“I will not be allowing them to drag me into their world of dirty politics and nothing is going to stop me from pursuing the job that I was elected to do with an overwhelming majority, which is representing the people of Hampstead and Highgate,” Siddiq told ‘Sky News’.
“So they need to stop this political vendetta, this smear campaign, and this malicious persecution right from the beginning,” she said.
Her latest correspondence sets a deadline of June 30 for the Bangladeshi authorities to reply, stating that “in the absence of a full and proper response… Ms Siddiq will consider this matter closed”.
The 42-year-old politician, who has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing, had reiterated in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer back in January that her “family connections are a matter of public record”.
In the letter released by 10 Downing Street, Siddiq pointed out that Starmer’s Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests had not found her in breach of the UK’s Ministerial Code and asserted that she had not “acted improperly”.
“The main thing I would say to you, I’m very proud to be the MP for Hampstead and Highgate. I was born in London, I grew up in London. I went to school here and now I’m an MP here,” Siddiq, who is the daughter of Sheikh Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, told the UK news channel.
During his recent London visit, Yunus told ‘The Financial Times’ newspaper that the UK has a “moral responsibility” to assist Bangladesh in tracing and retrieving funds allegedly funnelled also into Britain.
The 84-year-old Nobel Laureate had hoped for a meeting with Starmer, but Downing Street sources indicated that no formal meeting had been agreed. (PTI)
