The British parliamentarian and lawyer Lord Carlile has not been allowed entry into India. As news reports would have it, he was deported moments after his arrival in Delhi, where he intended to brief the media on the conviction of BNP chief Khaleda Zia by the judiciary in Bangladesh. Lord Carlile's decision to travel to Delhi came after the authorities in Dhaka did not give him a visa, for reasons that should be too obvious to any Bangladeshi now.
There are a couple of points which need to be made here about the Carlile factor in BNP politics. The first is that Lord Carlile has been a vocal critic of the war crimes trials in Bangladesh and has been observed to controversially argue that the trials were not based on a proper presentation of evidence.
The second point is that Carlile was appointed a lawyer for Begum Khaleda Zia by her exiled son in London without consultations with the senior echelon of the BNP leadership in Dhaka. That certainly caused resentment among BNP circles, who have felt there were enough seasoned lawyers in the party to take up the defense of their party chief.
One understands that it is not always good policy to deny a foreigner, especially a lawyer moved by his conscience to defend a politician in trouble, entry into a country. By that measure, Sir Thomas Williams QC was allowed to come to Pakistan in the late 1960s to defend Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Agartala Conspiracy Case. But once he was in Dhaka, Sir Thomas found himself tailed by Pakistani intelligence in intimidating manner, to a point where he eventually left the country.
There is, however, a difference between Lord Carlile and Sir Thomas Williams. Carlile has been known for his pro-Jamaat sentiments and his questioning of the war crimes trials despite the fact that the trial proceedings were conducted under international law. His attitude towards the Bangladesh government has been one of overt hostility which again was a sign of the prejudice he appeared to be guided by in his attitude to Bangladesh.
It is a good sign of things that the Bangladesh government is careful about identifying the people who do not wish the country well. We certainly do not recommend that foreigners be prevented from entering Bangladesh, but we do believe that we need to be careful about individuals whose preconceived negative notions about the country can only undermine us.
We are ready to welcome foreign lawyers with an impeccable record into our country. We are not willing to have people whose hostility to our right to conduct our own affairs defines their attitude to Bangladesh come into the country.
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