Tarana Halim, ex-state minister for Posts and Telecommunications, has said that mobile phone operator Grameenphone has disgraced the President as an institution by serving a legal notice to him.
She said this while talking to Bangladesh Post on Thursday adding that she was so astonished and sad to hear about the incident.
Tarana Halim, also a lawyer, further said, “The President is above everything. As far my knowledge goes there is no legal basis of serving a legal notice to the honorable President as per law. Besides, it (serving legal notice) is a haughty demeanour (of Grameenphone).”
“I think this is the first incident in Bangladesh to serve a legal notice to the Honorable President,” she said.
Telenor Group, owner of Bangladesh’s mobile phone operator Grameenphone, recently served a legal notice to President Abdul Hamid seeking arbitration over payment of Tk 12,580 crore which Grameenphone kept as dues for a long time and denying to pay the BTRC the full amount.
Regarding the Grameenphone’s lodged case against the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in connection with the dues, Tarana Halim said that the court will decide about the matters. In such a situation, not only to the President, a legal notice cannot be served against any person or organization. Such legal notice is totally illegal, she added.
Mobile operators may disagree in various issues with the government and they have options for going to the court for a lawful decision, she opined.
“However, I think the mobile operators’ main focus should be of improving quality of their service to ensure satisfaction of the subscribers avoiding this type of questionable behavior,” she said.
“The mobile phone operator’s quality of service is poor. There have many problems, such as call drop, slow internet, higher internet rate and so on. When I was state minister in the ministry, I had introduced money back system to customers due to call drop of the operators.”
Is the system still continuing? If not, then why the operators making such mockery without improving their service? She questioned.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Cathrine Stang Lund, spokeswoman for Telenor Group that owns Grameenphone, said: “GP is not a party to this process.”
“For Telenor Group it is important to protect its assets in Bangladesh. Telenor has sent a notice to seek resolution of a dispute and invited the Government of Bangladesh to meet to discuss the matter and work towards a constructive solution,” Lund said.
Regarding Telenor Group’s statement Tarana Halim said, “Grameenphone cannot deny the responsibility. Telenor, being a foreign company, does not have any right to send legal notice to the President, the highest institution of the country.”
