Posts and Telecommunications and ICT Minister Abdul Latif Siddique has been removed from the cabinet. The cabinet division issued a gazette to this effect on Sunday noon after President Abdul Hamid had signed the related documents. Meanwhile, sources in the Awami League also informed that Latif would also be fired from the party. The party will take the decision at a meeting scheduled to be held today (Sunday). The sources added that Latif would not only lose his presidium member status, but also be expelled from the party membership. Earlier at a press conference on October 3, confirming the removal of Latif Siddique, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told media that the file for his removal would be sent to the President once the office opens after the Eid-ul-Azha vacation. Earlier at a program organised by Awami League Tangail unit in the USA on September 28, Latif Siddique, who was in New York as part of the PM`s entourage in the 69th United Nations General Assembly, said he was against hajj and Tablighi Jamaat more than he detested the Jamaat-e-Islami. “Hajj is waste of manpower,” he said. “Those who perform hajj do not have any productivity. They deduct from the economy, spend a lot of money abroad.” Those in Tablighi Jamaat do not have anything else to do but block roads during a rally, he said. Regarding PM`s son Joy, the minister said: “Who is Joy?” A video clip of him talking spread over the internet kicking up a storm, but the remarks about the hajj in particular touched some raw nerves. Following the broad criticism, the Awami League-led government announced that it had removed Latif Siddique from his post.
