Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
Many civil servants got their jobs under the freedom fighter (FF) quota using fake FF certificate, while many others are still active to collect similar certificate in the name of their fathers to get government jobs.
The government took initiative against many government officials, including secretaries, in 2014 and cancelled their fake FF certificates. However, who issued the fake certificates and who submitted fake certificates in their fathers’ names, they remain untouched. According to sources, some dishonest officials of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs are involved in issuing the fake FF certificate in exchange of money. On the other hand, the applicants collect the forged FF certificate in favour of their fathers for getting special benefits in the government jobs.
Children and grandchildren of the freedom fighters enjoy 30 per cent quota in government jobs and special quotas in admission into government schools, colleges and universities. Under the present BCS examinations system, the joining age in the freedom fighter quota is 32.
One police official Sohrab Hossain, who is now posted in Mymensingh as probationer ASP, made his father freedom fighter prior to become ASP. He joined the job on August 7 in 2014 through the 33rd BCS in FF quota.
Sources said, Sohrab submitted fake FF certificate in his father’s name during application of the BCS exam. He colleted certificate from the ministry prior to the exam.
Sohrab is son of Bazlur Rahman of Alipura village under Raipura upazila in Narsingdi district. Some members of Raipura Muktijudhya Sangsad said that Bazlur Rahman was not a freedom fighter. Some dishonest officials of the ministry helped Sohrab to get the job by issuing a fake FF certificate in his father’s name. The way was followed by some secretaries and several other government officials, whose certificates were cancelled in 2014.
Sohrab exercised the quota and age benefits in the 33rd BCS. But, he did not applied for the 32nd BCS although the special BCS exam was taken only for the quota holders. Sohrab’s age expired during the 33rd BCS exam. He served at the National Board of Revenue (NBR) prior to joining the BCS job. But he did not mention his name as freedom fighter’s son in his job application of the NBR.
“His (Sohrab) father was not a freedom fighter during the 32nd BCS, how it will be possible that he became a freedom fighter during the 33rd BCS?” one asked, saying that many others joined the government in such way.
When tried to contact Sohrab, his brother Shoyeb Hossain responded to the call of this reporter and claimed that his father was a freedom fighter. He, however, admitted that his brother collected the FF certificate prior to the 33rd BCS exam. He claimed that they collected the certificate in the proper way. He told that he will provide documents, but did not contact later.
A member of Raipura Upazila Muktijuddha Sangsad said that Bazlur Rahman’s name was not in the voter list published from the UNO office of Raipura for the election of the Muktijuddha Sangsad in 2010. Raipura Upazila Muktijuddha Commander Nazrul Islam admitted the matter. He said, “I don’t know about issuing of the freedom fighter certificate in favour of his father by the ministry.”
Sohrab, however, collected testimonial from the Muktijuddha Commander prior to join the government job as ASP. About the matter, Nazrul Islam said, “As the ministry issued freedom fighter certificate in the name of his father, I gave him a testimonial. Otherwise, I could not give the testimonial.”
Like Sohrab, many others have been enjoying state facilities and joining the government jobs impersonating the greatest sons of the soil. They submit fake FF certificates in favour of their father to grab job in the Freedom Fighter quota. Many of the civil servants who got government jobs under the FF quota often confessed that their fathers were not freedom fighters at all.
A certain quarter has long been involved in FF certificate forgery, sources said.
