TIB slams Shajahan-led road safety body

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) today strongly condemned the government decision to appoint Shajahan Khan as the chief of a committee formed to recommend ways on curbing road accidents and bringing discipline to the road transport sector.

The committee is “questionable” as it has been formed with the people, who are “controversial and biased” for their role in curving road accident, TIB said in a statement.

The anti-graft watchdog also called upon the government to reform the committee with the prominent and expert person in this sector.

The government on Sunday made Shajahan Khan as the chief of a 15-member committee formed to recommend ways on curbing road accidents and bringing discipline to the road transport sector.

It is impossible to hope that the committee led by influential leaders of transport owners and workers’ federations can perform their duty neutrally and independently, said Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the TIB, in the statement.

Hours after two college students were killed by a speeding bus in the capital in July last year, Shajahan Khan smirked when reporters sought his reaction as a transport leader.

On many occasions in the past, his other comments and actions regarding road safety issue sparked widespread criticism.

Now he will lead a 15-member committee to give recommendations for preventing road accidents and bringing discipline in the road transport sector. The government formed the committee yesterday.