The man who declared war on corruption
Star Online Special 2/4/09
He debatably took up the most challenging job in a graft-riddled country – to catch the big time corrupts – and he did it with due diligence. But everybody could feel that his time was up as soon as the elections were held.
Lt Gen (rtd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, who just resigned as the chief of the Anti-corruption Commission, did not look at party affiliation in his graft busting actions. He cast his net wide – and many would say he cast it too wide indeed – to press charges against the top politicians.
His actions – Mashhud travelled widely across the country to create awareness against corruption – instilled a sense of fear in the corrupt nexus. A general indication of it was the record filing of tax returns during the tenure of the caretaker government's two years. But then, a criticism against him was that along with gunning for the bigwigs, he unnecessarily barked up some wrong trees too. Small time traders and professionals were also scared in the course of time.
Despite that Mashhud had enjoyed a broad support.
With the coming of a political government in power after the December 29, 2008 general elections, ACC's activities almost stalled and there was a palpable sense of frustration among the ACC officials.
Since then it only dealt with two cases – filing of a money laundering case against Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, and issuing a notice to submit wealth statement to Syed Iskander, brother of Khaleda.
Mashhud's success could be termed as mixed as things got stuck in courts. According to the ACC's annual report, it has filed 384 cases until June, 2008. other organisations such as police have filed 710 cases which are being pursued by the ACC. Among these, 643 cases were in the process of investigation, charge sheets of 156 have been submitted and about 17 are being processed. Writ petitions have been filed against 265 cases. Some 314 persons were asked to submit their wealth statements of whom 273 have submitted the same while 32 did not comply who are mostly in hiding.
All the persons who were accused or sentenced in graft cases filed by the ACC ultimately came out of jails on bail. And many of the convicts and accused who were on the run since the anti-graft drive by the past caretaker government are now back in the country. Many of the accused and convicts also participated in elections.
It was then that a sense of frustration crept into public minds and the apprehension about the fate of the anti-graft drive grew larger. With the exit of the ACC boss, this fear got a further boost.