Staff Correspondent:

Shipping Adviser Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain on Sunday said the police force is not functioning as a structured institution, even though a year has passed since the interim government took office.

If the law enforcement agencies do not perform their duties properly, the government cannot execute many desirable tasks, Sakhawat Hossain noted, blaming the previous Awami League administration for tearing down the structure of every state-sponsored institution, including the Army.

Fascism infiltrated each of these institutions, the adviser said, reflecting on the first year of interim government at an event in Gulshan. The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the event.

“In this backdrop, how much change can the interim government bring in one year?” Sakhawat Hossain asked rhetorically.

“The government is now trying to establish a new structure, so that the upcoming elected administration can carry forward the tasks,” he said.

He also highlighted the irregularities present in the labour sector. Many a time, the BGMEA president aspirant also wants to be a lawmaker. But, being a lawmaker, he cannot represent the country at many international platforms, including the International Labour Organization (ILO).

There are other examples of “conflicts of interests” in the country’s labour sector, the former military official said.

Some factory owners left the country after taking loans from the state-run Labour Welfare Fund to pay for workers’ wages. Now, the government is having to to sell the factories to recover the lent funds and pay for wages, said Sakhawat Hossain.