LETTERS: Bangladesh gets better and better

From Mr Munshi Faiz Ahmad Sir: Tim McGirk writes in his article "Dhaka opposition resigns" (29 December) that the 1991 Bangladesh general election was rigged. However, it is seen by the electorate in Bangladesh as one of the fairest elections ever held in the country. The large n umber of foreign observers present at that time commended it unreservedly as being free and fair.

Tim McGirk tries to implicate the late president Ziaur Rahman in the death of our first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which is mischievous when dealing with events which are painfully sensitive for many millions of people.

Mr McGirk exaggerates the effects of political unrest in Bangladesh during 1994. Had he been objective, he would have noticed that while interruptions did take place, the country continued to take steadfast steps to achieve higher industrial and agricultural growth, undertake massive infrastructural developments and record pervasive improvements in the social indicators of life. It is not difficult to appreciate that these achievements do not take place in the situation of "ungovernability"

that your reporter assumes for us.

Thanking you, Yours truly, MUNSHI FAIZ AHMAD Counsellor in charge of the Press Wing High Commission for the People's Republic of Bangladesh London, SW7

31 December