HOT CLIMATE OFBANGLADESHI POLITICAL FIELDS AND COMING NATIONAL ELECTION

Free Khaleda eyes vote as son exits scene :-


Hasina's freedom before any talks: Zillur









**Thu, Sep 11th, 2008 8:44 pm BST

Dhaka, Sept 11 (bdnews24.com)–BNP chief Khaleda Zia, freed after a year in jail, has said her party will join the electoral dialogue and general elections, as son Tarique Rahman quit his party post before flying to London Thursday night. "BNP is united and will remain united," a frail former prime minister told cheering supporters at her party headquarters in the capital's Naya Paltan Thursday afternoon. Her release Thursday morning probably paved the way for the major parties, along with rival Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, to participate in general elections slated for December. "BNP wants to be engaged in dialogue. BNP wants to take part in elections," Khaleda said. She was flanked by confidants such as Khandaker Delwar Hossain, whom she named as secretary general before her Sep 3 arrest last year replacing longstanding ally Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan. "My son will take two to three years to recover. He will be away from politics until he fully recovers," Khaleda said of ailing Tarique, widely criticised for abuse of power during her second five-year term as prime minister. Tarique formally left the political scene behind, as he handed a note resigning his party post as senior joint secretary general to a party official before boarding a London-bound flight, highly-placed sources said. A senior party source, who wished to remain anonymous, told bdnews24.com: "Yes, I know he left a letter of resignation." Airport security chief M Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com that he flew out by an Emirates flight at 9:50pm. Wife, daughter, a doctor and two other relatives were with him on board while mother Khaleda Zia rested at her home in the Dhaka cantonment. The former prime minister, nowhere near her previous glamorous self, stepped out Thursday morning from special jail set up in the parliament complex, waved to the crowd, who showered her with flower petals. Pale but still smiling, Khaleda then drove straight to her slain husband Ziaur Rahman's graveside to pay her respects. Senior BNP leaders had already arrived at the grave to greet their chief. Delwar, SQ Chowdhury, ASM Hannan Shah and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy were, among others, present. Hundreds shouted slogans as her heavily-guarded cream-coloured Pajero reached the grave complex. Thousands also thronged the Sangsad Bhaban premises when she left the special jail flanked by daughter-in-law Zubaida and grand daughter Zaima. Prisons DIG Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said at 11.30am Thursday that the BNP chief was now free to go home, on bail. She then visited ailing Tarique at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, where she hinted her elder son would quit party for now, before going to the party headquarters for the first time since the Jan 11 changeover last year. She left Naya Paltan at 5:20pm, reaching her Mainul Road residence in minutes under heavy security. "My son has been tortured … it was unjust … my two sons have been reduced to nothing," she said, breaking into tears at the Naya Paltan headquarters. Tarique, her political heir apparent, who was released from detention on bail on Sep 3 after securing bail in 12 cases, was blamed by many for creating a situation that led to the 1/11 declaration of emergency. Tarique, known more as a wheeler-dealer than a leader, had reputation for using political perches to benefit himself, his family and his friends. Secretary general Delwar however told partymen at Naya Paltan that presence of thousands at the hospital proved the popularity of the elder son of Khaleda Zia. As Delwar demanded Tarique be sent abroad for treatment, back at hospital, the ailing BNP joint secretary general was busy packing for his trip to London amid reports he had been relieved of his party post. "Tarique is flying to London on an Emirates flight to seek medical treatment. He also has a German visa. He might be taken to Germany if necessary," lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan told reporters at around 6.50pm. Tarique's wife Zubaida, daughter Zaima, doctor Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon and two other relatives were seen accompanying him. The BNP leader's departure for the UK had been postponed, his lawyer complaining that he could not leave Wednesday as scheduled because of "obstructions" created by the government. BNP leader Hannan Shah told reporters earlier that detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia wished to see her ailing son before he went. Tarique remained in the hospital after the Sept 3 release. DIG Siddiqui had earlier said authorities had received all the Khaleda documents at 6:45pm Wednesday, and that she would be freed anytime on Thursday. Bail bonds for Khaleda were submitted by lawyers earlier on Wednesday to four separate courts handling the GATCO, Niko, Zia Orphanage Trust and Barapukuria coalmine cases. Khaleda and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were arrested on Sept 3 last year in GATCO graft case. Coco is now in Thailand for better medical treatment on bail. Later, three more graft cases were filed against her. She secured bail in all the cases. Chances are there that the Supreme Court could still cancel the bails after hearing the appeal of the Anticorruption Commission, likely on Sept 15. That now seems a remote possibility, given the statement from a government spokesman immediately after the release of Khaleda. "The government will take initiatives to get the two top leaders to sit together to help the nation overcome the current political crisis and restore sound political atmosphere," adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman Thursday told a briefing. "We hope they will not only respond to this move but also take initiatives on their own since the two leaders have contributed a lot to the country," he said. With Hasina already out on parole and making political speeches, Khaleda's latest overtures only made the prospects for a December general election look brighter.

**Thu, Sep 11th, 2008 9:33 pm BST

Dhaka, Sept 11 (bdnews24.com) - Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman Thursday demanded unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina before the government makes any plans to sit the two leaders of the two rival political parties across the table. "If the government can solve the problem by putting the two leaders across the table, that is all to the good." "But Sheikh Hasina has to be given unconditional release. Sheikh Hasina will not sit with anybody while under confinement, not even with the president." Zillur spoke to reporters at his Gulshan home Thursday afternoon, in response to commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman's earlier statement that the caretaker government would take the initiative to bring former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia together for talks. Said Zillur: "I do not know how and why an adviser of the government said this." His reaction to Khaleda Zia's release on bail was: "Very good." "We do not believe in wilful injustice to anybody. If a person is proved guilty, they will have to be punished. But no one has the right to keep a person confined for nothing." "But Awami League leaders are still behind bars without bail. The law should be equal for all. None of these people will flee if they are given bail," he added.

(Courtesey:Bangladeshi news online service)