Ousted Bangladesh MP, Shakib Al Hasan allowed to play vs Pakistan: ‘He cannot avoid the responsibility of mass killings,’ says former BCB member

Days after the Bangladesh Parliament was dissolved, Shakib Al Hasan – a former MP under the Sheikh Hasina regime – has been granted the permission to play for the national cricket team on the upcoming tour of Pakistan.

“We presented the team before the sports adviser. He did not oppose the inclusion of Shakib. He said that the team should be formed on merit,” Iftekhar Ahmed, a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board told AFP.

The veteran all-rounder, who was a member of the Awami League party, lost his job after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was upstaged in a dramatic student-led national uprising.

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26-year-old Asif Mahmud, one of those student leaders of the national uprising, is now the de facto sports minister in an interim government and was the one who gave the final go ahead to Shakib to play for the national team despite his ties to the dethroned Awami League party.

There has been no public comment from Shakib since the government was dissolved.

“Shakib cannot avoid the responsibility of mass killings as a lawmaker,” former BCB board member Rafiqul Islam, who was an office bearer before the Hasina regime, told AFP.

“When students were being killed, he never protested. Many of these students considered him an icon. He should have come home first and gave an explanation why he was silent,” he added.

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Shakib, who is widely regarded as one of the sport’s top all-rounders, was the captain of the national team as recently as the T20 World Cup. The 37-year-old joined the Bangladeshi squad in Pakistan straight from Canada, where he was playing in a Twenty20 competition, ahead of the first of two Tests scheduled to begin on August 21 in Rawalpindi.

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