DHAKA: Government changes, but not the verses of the ministers.

Years after a former Home Minister had presented the nation the “Allah’s mal (creatures)” theory, an incumbent State Minister came up with the similar observation.

Muzibul Haq Chunnu, State Minister for Labor, while talking about safety of garments workers, said that they (government) have nothing to do if the Allah brings death to someone.

“We don’t want any repeat of Rana Plaza or Tazreen tragedies... But, we have nothing to do if the Allah takes away someone,” he told a workshop on “Safety and Working Environment of the Garments Sector” at the 5-star Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.

As the audience burst into laugher, one person asked whether he was referring to the “Allah took away the Allah’s mal (creatures)” theory.

“I won’t say in this way... If I say so, the journalists will distort my statement,” said the junior minister, one of the representatives from the “opposition” Jatiya Party in Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Former Home Minister Air-Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury was the pioneer in referring to the phrase the “Allah’s mal”.

As a child, while traveling by a rickshaw on the lap of her father, was killed by indiscriminate bullets of snatchers, the then Home Minister went to the parents and consoled them saying that the “Allah took away the Allah’s mal”.

Altaf’s statement saw much of controversies as it was seen as a lame excuse to his failure as a Home Minister to protect the lives of common people.

BDST: 1555 HRS, MAY 26, 2014