Parliamentary watchdog for tasking lobbyists to rescind US sanction

The Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recommended appointing lobbyists for Dhaka in an effort to undo the US sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion and some of its former and current top officials in December last year over human rights issues.  

After a meeting Wednesday, the parliamentary committee said Bangladesh is being portrayed in a negative light to the US and there must be lobbyists or public relations agencies out there doing it.

Without mentioning any name, the parliamentary body Chairman Muhammad Faruk Khan said, "Many peruse the US senators and congressmen by professional lobbyists and PR [public relations] groups to feed them negative information about bangladesh. We need to counteract it."    

According to the committee, Dhaka would be able to present accurate information if there are lobbyists for Bangladesh in Washington. It asked the foreign ministry to take action accordingly.   

Faruk Khan, also a lawmaker from Gopalgonj-1, told journalists that Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will discuss the sanction with his counterpart during his US trip in February.      

On 10 December last year, the US State Department imposed sanctions on RAB and seven of its former and current officials, including the current Inspector General of Police (IGP) and former RAB director general (DG) Benazir Ahmed.

Due to the sanctions, they will not get a US visa, and may even have their assets in the US confiscated.

After that, US ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller was summoned by Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen to convey Dhaka's discontent over the designated sanctions.

The foreign minister also wrote to his US counterpart Antony Blinken requesting a review of the sanctions.

According to sources, the meeting opined they believe Bangladesh lies on a very critical location due to global geo-politics, and the US sanctions incorporate geo-political reasons.             

One of the committee members proposed summoning the US ambassador in Bangladesh to the committee. "We came to know about the sanctions only when the US issued the official notification. Why was there not any information before that?" asked the member.    

There were discussions about initiating talks between Bangladesh and US lawmakers.  

Faruk Khan told journalists that they talked about Bangladeshi embassies abroad to be proactive, and suggested the foreign ministry to observe the issue closely.   

State Minister for Ministry of Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, committee Member Nurul Islam Nahid, Member Golam Faruk Khandakar Prince and Member Md Abdul Majid Khan were present at Wednesday's meeting.