Describing the circumstances in which his government took office, Tarique Rahman said there was a mountain of irregularities and corruption in every sector, including gas, electricity, industry, education and banking. The people of the country are well aware of these problems, he said.

Criticising quick-rental power plants, Tarique Rahman said the state had been burdened with debt by providing benefits to certain people in the name of such projects. Yet the previous government failed to find a lasting solution to the power crisis.

The prime minister said his government did not want to use the problems inherited from the fascist rule as an excuse. Instead, it wanted to develop and implement plans to resolve them so that peace, relief and security could be ensured in people’s lives. The government is working tirelessly toward that goal, he said.

Criticising the previous government’s efforts to extract gas from domestic sources, Leader of the House Tarique Rahman said, “Our neighbouring countries on both sides of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal are extracting gas from the sea. Yet, as if at some invisible signal, no attempt was made to extract gas from the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh’s own maritime area.”

Without naming any country, Tarique Rahman said, “Some people say that gas wells were not drilled in Bangladesh’s part of the Bay of Bengal so that a particular country would not be harmed and could continue to take gas without any obstacles.” He said the Middle East had been Bangladesh’s main source of imported gas and that the country had been made completely dependent on imports.

Explaining the reasons behind the current crisis, the prime minister said the war situation in the Middle East began within 10–12 days of the BNP government taking office. This created difficulties in importing oil and gas from the region. Meanwhile, one of the country’s two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) suffered an accident. Its shutdown further aggravated the crisis.