The information secretary, ATM Fazlul Karim, lost his
job on Monday, a day after he was sued for allegedly defaming Bangladesh’s
founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through his poem.
An official
notification Monday afternoon said Karim would go into retirement immediately.
In the
notification, which cited no reason for his forced retirement, the government
invoked a rule that empowers the authorities to send any public servant into
retirement on completion of 25 years in service.
The
announcement just said he was being retired as he had completed 25 years in
service and ‘as the government considers it necessary to retire him in public
interest.’
Known as Abu Karim among poets, the civil servant, who
was appointed information secretary on January 19, was sued by Mohammad Ilyas
Hossain bin Helali, the president of the ruling Awami League’s associate body
Awami Ulema League, on Sunday.
A newspaper
published excerpts from his poem titled ‘Alu Bokhara and Abdur Rahman,’ printed
in his collection of poems tilted ‘Bagane Phute Achhe Asangkha Golap,’ in which
he allegedly depicted the leader of Bangladesh’s independence war, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, and his three sons in a defamatory manner.
One of the
witnesses named in the complaint is Amader Shomoy editor Naimul Islam Khan. The
paper published the excerpts on Friday.
Abu Karim,
however, brushed aside the allegation of defaming Sheikh Mujib. He told New Age
on Monday, ‘The poem, written on February 6, 2006 and published in the volume
in 2008, is metaphorical.