BTMA President: Chief Advisor’s Press Secretary Shafiqul talks like a lunatic

Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) President Shawkat Aziz Russell has said that the Chief Advisor’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam is talking like a madman.

He made these comments at a discussion organized at a hotel in the capital on Sunday, November 2, on the crisis in the country’s garment sector and ways to overcome it.

Shawkat Aziz Russell said, “He has a Facebook page, he embarrasses people by saying contradictory things. If the right people don’t go to the right place, then the right decisions won’t be made.”

Regarding the recent complaints about the lack of a meeting between Dr. Yunus and Mahmud Hasan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Association (BGMEA), the organization of garment factory owners, he said, “Unfortunately, the BGMEA president has not yet been able to get a date for a meeting with the chief advisor. So why did you take on this responsibility?”

Addressing Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, the BTMA president said, ‘We are all dying, factories are closing, people are being laid off. … Don’t you see all this? Where the airport burns down, will foreign buyers place orders there or not? The intangible damage is much greater.’

He said to the government, “Free us through elections.”

Former Commerce Minister and BNP Standing Committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, along with businessmen from the garment and textile sectors, spoke at the meeting organized by the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association (BGBA).