NSU trustee board holds first meeting after reconstitution
The Board of Trustees of North South University held its first meeting tonight (August 22, 2022) after its reconstitution by the government.
"The board of trustees sat in a meeting. It was an introductory meeting to get to know each other. There was no specific agenda," said NSU Vice Chancellor Prof Atiqul Islam, also a member of the trustee board.
He said four members of the board joined the meeting virtually. There are 12 members in the trustee board.
Following an order of President Abdul Hamid, also the chancellor of the university, the government reconstituted the NSU trustee board on August 16, 2022, as some members of the previous board were "found to be involved in anti-state activities, sponsorship of militancy, corruption and arbitrariness" in a University Grants Commission (UGC) probe.
This violated the law and penal code, said the Secondary and Higher Education Division (SHED) in an order.
It said four trustees are now behind bars following an order of the High Court in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission over their involvement in financial corruption in the land purchase process of the university.
Moreover, a supplementary charge sheet was submitted against another trustee over forging government documents related to the appointment of treasurer to the university, read the order.
In such a situation, it was not appropriate to include the accused persons in the Board of Trustees. Academic and operational activities were being hampered as the trustee board cannot be run fully, the SHED said.
The president also decreased the number of board members to 12 from 16.
The seven dropped members of the previous Board of Trustees are -- Azim Uddin Ahmed, chairman of Mutual Group of Companies; Benajir Ahmed, managing director and CEO of Raymond Group of Industries; Aziz Al Kaiser, vice chairman of Partex Star Group; MA Kashem, chairman of Mutual Group of Industries; Rehana Rahman, managing director of Bengal Tradeways Ltd; Mohammed Shajahan, managing director of Shah Fatehullah Textile Mills Ltd and Jalal Ahmed Spinning Mills Ltd; and Nurul H Khan, former chairman of National Board of Revenue.
The ACC has sued five members of the previous trustee board -- Azim Uddin Ahmed, Mohammed Shajahan, Benajir Ahmed, MA Kashem and Rehana Rahman -- and Ashalaya Housing Managing Director Amin Md Hilaly over laundering about Tk 304 crore. All five are businesspeople.
Shajahan, Benajir, Kashem and Rehana had sought anticipatory bail from the High Court, but the court denied their petitions and sent them to jail on May 22. They are now behind bars.