Ruling Awami League lawmaker Golam Maula Rony
By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
After a daylong drama over his resignation from the Bangladesh parliament, ruling Awami League (AL) lawmaker Golam Maula Rony yesterday retreated from his plan to quit saying he now leaving it to the party.
“There’re two options for me either to quit voluntarily or as per the decision of the party. If the party wants me to resign, I can do that and I’ve no problem,” Rony told newsmen after a meeting with parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.
About the meeting with the Speaker, the lawmaker said: “I went to her to talk about my problems and find a way out to it.”
Rony said he asked the Speaker whether parliament is embarrassed following his controversy over assaulting two journalists, and she replied, “There’s no reason for parliament to be embarrassed over a personal matter.”
Rony’s resignation talks came to the fore following a status on his Facebook earlier in the day where Rony hinted about his resignation saying: “Probably, I’m going to resign. I feel, I should face the conspiracy as a general public.”
Rony said he will prove what actually happened on that day. “I’ll invite media personalities to make a level-playing field for me and my opponent.”
Before meeting the Speaker, Rony told journalists that the resignation from the parliament seat is a constitutional matter. “I’m going to meet the Speaker to talk to her about it.”
On Saturday, Rony along with his supporters assaulted Independent TV reporter Imtiaz Momin Sony and cameraman Mohsin Mukul Bakul when they went to Rony’s office on the ninth floor of Meherba Plaza at Topkhana Road in Dhaka to verify some allegations against the lawmaker.
Hours after the Independent Television authorities filed a case against Rony, the lawmaker filed a counter-case against Salman F Rahman, chairman of Independent TV, and others on Saturday night on charge of attempting to kill him.
On Sunday, a Dhaka court granted bail to Rony in an attempt to murder case.