Dhaka: The acting chairman and eldest son of former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday announced that he would “return soon”, ending his 26 years in self-exile in London to contest the February general election. Tarique Rahman in an interview to BBC Bangla said, “For some reasonable reasons my return has not happened... but the time has come, and I will return soon.”
The 58-year-old de facto chief of the BNP added, “I am running in the election (as well).” Asked about the possibility of assuming office as prime minister if the BNP formed the government, he said “The people will decide.”
The then army-backed caretaker government sent him to London in 2008 for medical treatment while legal procedures were underway against him on several criminal and graft cases. He subsequently preferred to stay in the British capital during the subsequent Awami League government of now deposed premier Sheikh Hasina visibly to evade punitive actions. One such case accused him of masterminding a grenade attack in 2004 on the then opposition leader Hasina and her party leaders.
Zia, 80, is suffering from various ailments and it remains unclear if she will run again or play a guiding role behind her son and the party.
Rahman’s comments came amid speculation after his party overnight, deviating from its earlier stance, agreed to accept a referendum to elicit public opinion on “July Declaration” made by interim government chief Muhammad Yunus to make it part of the Constitution. Yunus announced the declaration on August 5 this year coinciding with the first anniversary of the ouster of Hasina’s Awami League regime following a violent street campaign dubbed as July uprising, led by the Students against Discrimination (SAD).
The declaration demanded Bangladesh’s Constitution to acknowledge the 2024 uprising alongside trials for deposed regime leaders, including Hasina, recognition of July martyrs and protection of July movement participants. Most SAD activists and leaders earlier this year regrouped and floated the National Citizen Party (NCP) visibly with Yunus’s blessings while the student-led grouping last week secured registration from the Election Commission. agencies