Murad stands down after PM's order

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr M Murad Hasan submitted his resignation on Tuesday following the instruction given by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.He resigned from the cabinet showing personal ground as he has mentioned in his resignation letter, sources at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said.

Dr Murad signed his resignation letter and sent it to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry at around 12:30pm yesterday. The resignation will be sent to the Prime Minister through the cabinet division or directly to the Prime Minister's Office.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked Murad to resign from the cabinet by Tuesday for giving offensive and vulgar speech about the women that became viral on the social media. Meanwhile, Murad Hassan, a disgraced state minister who stepped down from his post after a scandalous audio leak went viral on social media, has made a mistake in the resignation letter he submitted.

The state minister for information emailed his resignation letter, urging the prime minister to accept it and remove him from his duties. But, though he was appointed as state minister in 2019, he mistakenly wrote the year 2021 in the letter. In addition to the emailed copy, the Cabinet Division has asked Murad to submit a hard copy of his resignation letter, said an official in the Ministry of Information. His aide was asked to resend the letter after correcting the date.

Murad was appointed state minister for health following the formation of the new cabinet on Jan 7, 2019. He was transferred to the Ministry of Information a few months later.In another development, Murad Hassan, who submitted his resignation from cabinet on Tuesday, was relieved from Awami League's Jamalpur District Executive Committee on the same day.

At an emergency meeting held at its party office in Bakultola area in the town, Jamalpur district AL relieved Murad from its health and population affairs secretary post under section 47/9 of the AL's constitution.Jamalur district AL president Advocate Mohammad Baki Billah presided over the meeting.

He said considering the recent facebook live, talk-shows, various statements of Murad and his telephonic conversations with a film actress, Prime Minister directed him to resign from the state minister post.  "Accordingly, we think that all activities of Dr Murad Hassan contrary to the AL's policy and unanimously we took the punitive measure against him," Baki Billah added.