Khaleda waits on events, worried about Tarique

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The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, who has reportedly agreed to a government proposal to leave the country, is learnt to have not given any specific time frame for her departure.
Before making a final decision, Khaleda would try to know for sure the fate of her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, now in jail facing extortion charges. Besides, she would try to wait to see as to what happens to her arch political rival Sheikh Hasina, who is abroad at the moment on a private trip, BNP sources said on Tuesday.
‘She [Khaleda] has “in principle” agreed to leave the country. But she is yet to give a specific time for her departure,’ a BNP insider said. ‘She is bargaining with the government to settle the fate of Tarique.’
Khaleda was earlier adamant not to leave the country in spite of constant persuasion by an influential section of the government for the last couple of weeks. ‘But she is now weighing two options—to leave the country for safety of her two sons, daughters-in-law and three grandchildren or to stay at home and look forward to better days,’ a BNP source said.
‘She is also worried about the future of BNP and her party colleagues,’ he claimed.
The brief detention of her younger son Arafat Rahman was part of the government tactic of mounting pressure on the BNP
chairperson to quit the country, many a BNP leader believes.
Syeed Eskandar, a retired military official and a younger brother of Khaleda, is a working as one of the mediators between Khaleda and the government authorities concerned to make her agree to go into exile.
‘She has been offered a safe passage out of the country within a couple of days or face consequences’, a family source said. ‘She has been asked to convey her decision to appropriate authorities by Wednesday night.’
The High Court, meanwhile, on Tuesday stayed for six months the proceedings of an extortion case filed against Tarique Rahman, also senior joint secretary general of BNP.
The court also issued rule upon the government to explain why the case against Tarique, who has been charged with extorting Taka 1 crore from a construction firm, should not be quashed.
The trial court shifted the hearing of the charge to May 22.
Earlier, the government imposed restrictions on Khaleda’s movement as well as visitors to her Dhaka Cantonment residence.
Meanwhile, some leaders in Awami League believe that the influential quarters were likely to ask the party president, Sheikh Hasina, not to return home at the moment.
Hasina, who left home for US on March 15, said that she would return home on April 23.
The government of Faklhruddin Ahmed, however, repeatedly been claiming to the press that there is no pressure on either of the two top politicians, Khlaeda and Hasina, to leave the country or stay back abroad.
The communications adviser, MA Matin, told reporters on Tuesday, ‘There are no pressures from the government on either of them.’
‘If she [Khaleda] wants, she can go [abroad] on her own…For Arafat too, there is no bar,’ Matin, also chief of the national coordination committee against corruption, said. ‘But there is no scope for Tarique to get freed because there is a case against him.’
The adviser said similarly that there was no obstacle to Hasina’s return.

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