Drama continues

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The drama surrounding Khaleda Zia’s going into exile continued yesterday as she could not leave for Saudi Arabia due to unavailability of an ‘appropriate’ flight, delay in issuance of visas, and uncertainty about how the government is going to fund her stay abroad.
Family sources said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been ready to leave Bangladesh since Friday, stayed up all night on Saturday waiting to avail a flight, and went to sleep early morning yesterday, after the expected departure had been delayed.

Till early Saturday, when she met her elder son Tarique Rahman either at Kashimpur Jail or in the cantonment situated in Dhaka or Savar, she had been trying to convince the government to let her elder son accompany her. The government however declined to entertain her request.

“At this point, there is no chance of changing her mind about leaving Bangladesh because she is concerned about her family,” said a family source.

Khaleda’s brother Major (retd) Saeed Iskandar, who has been unofficially negotiating the terms of her exile, was present at her residence in Dhaka cantonment all through Saturday night. Although Iskandar officially denies being a part of the negotiation, sources said he played the key role in convincing her to leave Bangladesh.

Khaleda’s residence was also visited by a number of her relatives on Saturday night, who came to bid her farewell, the sources said.

Immediate past prime minister Khaleda Zia could not fly to an exile on Saturday due to some glitches in logistics including an uncertainty about which aircraft would carry her and her entourage, a delay in issuing visas for them, and a number of other issues regarding their accommodations in Saudi Arabia. Due to a lack of clear information from the authorities Khaleda and her family could not foresee the problems.

The authorities wanted Khaleda to leave on a special chartered plane, while she wanted to fly on board a standard passenger aircraft. Amid the disagreement, Saeed Iskandar reportedly opined that a chartered aircraft was good enough. The authorities accordingly arranged such a plane from Dubai on Saturday, which however was yet to reach Dhaka till last night.

Sources said payment to the company providing the chartered aircraft was not made on Saturday which had demanded an advance payment. An aviation sector source however confirmed yesterday that the payment was made and the aircraft was expected to land early last night.

“The rough weather might delay the landing for a while,” a source pointed out last evening.

The status of the visas also remained uncertain till yesterday afternoon, said a source. The number of people in Khaleda’s entourage kept rising in the last few days, necessitating a larger number of visas at the last moment. Besides, there was confusion over the type of visas to be issued for Khaleda and her entourage whether those would be meant for umrah or permanent residence.

Another source however confirmed that the visas were issued without any problem. “It does not matter if they have visas for a short term, because they can always extend the visas while in Saudi Arabia,” said a defence forces source.

Khaleda’s family is also unclear about how their long term stay in Saudi Arabia will be funded. The Daily Star also could not gather any information regarding the matter.

“Another unsettled issue is the education of the three grandchildren of Khaleda Zia, who will accompany her. We do not know about the schools there and about how they will get admissions there,” said a family source.

Khaleda will be accompanied by her younger son Arafat Rahman, his wife Samila Rahman, their children Zafira Rahman (7) and Zahia Rahman (3), Tarique’s wife Dr Zubaida Khan Rahman and their daughter Zaima Rahman (10), Zubaida’s mother Iqbal Mand Banu, Khaleda’s nephew Saiful Islam Duke, and three female and a male domestic helps.

Arafat’s children are students of Scholastica while Tarique’s daughter is a student of the International School of Dhaka.

Duke was declared a persona non grata in Dhaka cantonment by the authorities a few months ago, which bars him from visiting his aunt living there. The bar on him raises the question whether he will be allowed to accompany his aunt into exile.

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