DHAKA: Bangladesh is planning major purchase of weaponry, equipment and hardware for its armed forces, including anti-tank and anti-ship missile systems, aircraft for maritime patrol, frigates, tanks and helicopters, the Parliament was told.
Prime Minister Hasina Wajed’s government said it needed to strengthen the country’s defense system, The Daily Star reported yesterday.
Preparations are complete for signing a deal to buy anti-ship missiles for the navy at an estimated cost of 1.2 billion taka ($2 million) this year, Planning Minister Air Vice Marshal (retired) A.K. Khandker, who is in charge of the armed forces affairs in Parliament, said Sunday.
He said the purchases will be made in the current and next fiscal years, by June 2010. He did not indicate the cost involved, but said the defense expenditure would be in line with the country’s financial capabilities.
Khandker, the country’s first air force chief, in reply to a query said work is on to set up anti-aircraft missile systems on the most modern frigate at the navy’s disposal. The ship was purchased from South Korea during Hasina’s earlier tenure (1996-2001).
On coming to power in 2001, the (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) BNP-led four-party government decommissioned the ship on grounds of corruption in the purchase. It also sued Hasina and some others for the alleged graft.
The frigate was recommissioned under a new name in 2007 by the military-backed caretaker government that ruled for two years. The planning minister also said a process is under way to replace three frigates aged over 50 years with new ones.
Different countries are already being approached to that end, Khandker said, but did not give details. “An international tender has already been floated to purchase choppers and aircraft to strengthen maritime patrol and also to turn the navy into a three-dimensional force,” he said. For the army, the government will purchase helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, anti-tank and -aircraft missiles, sniper rifles, explosives, night vision equipment, modern radio devices, vehicles and other necessary hardware in the current fiscal year.
The government also plans to upgrade training for the army personnel by setting up simulators at 27 training establishments. For the air force, he said, the government has plans to purchase modern aircraft and cutting-edge equipment. The plans will be implemented gradually.
The previous Awami League government purchased eight MiG-29 fighters from Russia. The Khaleda Zia government (2001-06) brought charges against Hasina and others for corruption in that purchase as well. Bangladesh armed forces are equipped mainly with Chinese weapons and hardware.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday joined the ninth Parliament, ending its row of 17 working days with the speaker over seating arrangements in the house.
“We have decided to return to this session at the earliest,” opposition alliance chief whip Zainul Abedin Farruk said after a meeting of the parliamentary wing of the BNP headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Thirty-one lawmakers of the BNP-led alliance have stayed away from Parliament over a seating arrangement row in the House since Jan. 28. They walked out of the second sitting of the ninth Parliament, which came into being through landmark elections in late December, after Parliament’s new Speaker Abdul Hamid pushed four of the opposition lawmakers to back benches.
There was no official word if BNP ally Jamaat-e-Islami would also return. The Jamaat has two members in the lower house. The development took place a day after Prime Minister Hasina Wajed cautioned against the return of “extraconstitutional means” that had repeatedly impeded damaged democratic institutions in the past.
“We call for cooperation of all to ensure that the democratic process is uninterrupted, and at the same time the people need to guard against any behind-the-scenes plots to harm democracy,” the prime minister said while inaugurating a four-day orientation program for the newly elected lawmakers.
Somnath Chatterjee, visiting speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian Parliament, who addressed the Bangladeshi lawmakers, also stressed the role of the parliamentary opposition.
The opposition was pivotal and hence, maintaining good understanding between the ruling and opposition parties in parliament was key to the success of a democracy.
