No politician to be jailed if JP voted to power: Ershad

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad today pledged that he would not allow sending any senior politician to jail if the party is voted to power in the upcoming general election.

"I met the consequence several different times. But leaders of Awami League and BNP will remain safe if my party is voted to power in the upcoming general election," Ershad said while addressing a function in Bogra this noon.

Claiming JP to be like his son, Ershad said, "I want to see the party in the state power before my death."

The former autocratic ruler also blasted the government for its indulgence in mismanagement and misdeed in all sectors and said his party is the last resort for people to get rid of the prevailing situation.

Ershad, also the special envoy to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the government has been claiming that it has already taken the country on a highway towards development but the highway has been lying in a dilapidated state.

He said the countrymen are passing their days in a miserable condition as the incidents like rape, abduction, and killing are taking place frequently across the country.

At the same time, a group of people are engaged in siphoning off money for building second home abroad so that they can leave the country in the face of any adverse situation, the JP chief said.

The octogenarian leader, born on February 1, 1930, in Dinhata of British India, claimed himself as the son of the soil and said he would not leave the country plundering people's money ever.

Referring to the acute setback in the country's banking sector, Ershad also blamed the ruling party men for their hands in the scams and accused the government of doing nothing against them.

About unemployment of the educated students, he said the ruling party men are making money through illegal means in the name of providing jobs to the educated youth.

"Tk 10 lakh is needed to manage a job in constable post. Where are we living?" he remarked.