Bangladesh News

Reunification of splintered BNP and the party’s much awaited electoral dialogue with the Election Commission (EC) and the caretaker government seem only a matter of time as its standing committee, the highest policymaking forum, is scheduled to meet today under the leadership of its just released Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

The so-called dissident reformist leaders of BNP started rallying behind the party chairperson as soon as she walked out of jail on Thursday changing the whole scenario of recent BNP politics.

In a major turnaround, two leading ‘reformist’ figures also standing committee members M Saifur Rahman and Mahbubur Rahman met Khaleda in her cantonment residence yesterday afternoon.

Saifur, a former finance minister, and Mahbub, an ex-army chief, had an hour long talk with her from 4:00pm. Before going to Khaleda’s residence, they talked to her over the phone and got an appointment.

The two senior leaders had been supporting the ‘reform proposals’ floated by Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan even before Khaleda’s arrest on September 3 last year.

“We talked to Madam cordially,” Mahbub told The Daily Star last night and hoped that the party will be reunited again under the leadership of party chairperson, who was released from more than a yearlong detention on Thursday.

“She wanted to know many things from us while we also informed her about the latest political situation”, he added.

Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, who was also very vocal for the ‘reforms’, gave in to Khaleda’s leadership yesterday as well, by recognising Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the party’s secretary general.

Khaleda will preside over today’s standing committee meeting scheduled to be held in the party’s central office in Naya Paltan of the capital at 3:00pm. The meeting will be the first of its kind since December 2006.

Sources in BNP said the meeting will also discuss with importance the government’s planned move to bring two former premiers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to a table, who are known to be political archrivals, and both of whom were detained by the military backed caretaker government on several graft charges.

Nine of the 15-member standing committee will meet today as Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan is still expelled from the party and two other members Moudud Ahmed and Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain are still detained, while three other posts have been vacant for a long time.

“The organisational state of the party, the country’s latest political situation, reforms, and divisions in the party are expected to be discussed in the meeting,” Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman told The Daily Star.

He said dialogues with the Election Commission and the government and the upcoming elections will also be discussed. He said he was informed to attend the standing committee meeting at 3:00pm today.

The so-called reformists in the party became active after Khaleda’s arrest. They organised a meeting of the policymaking standing committee in in Saifur’s residence on October 29 last year where the former finance minister was nominated as the acting chairman of the party while Hafizuddin was nominated as the acting secretary general, bypassing Khaleda and her appointed secretary general Delwar.

Seven out of 12 members of the standing committee were present in that meeting.

The move split the BNP in two, with Delwar-led faction taking the EC to court after the commission had invited Hafizuddin to the electoral dialogues in a letter addressing him as the acting secretary general.

With the emergence of Hannan Shah, apparently leading yet another party faction, put the country’s one of the largest parties in a very precarious situation.

Before leaving the country for treatment on May 7 this year, Saifur relinquished the leadership of his own faction.

Now, Maj Hafizuddin also thinks that the October 29 decision of the so-called standing committee was wrong.

“There is no dispute about her leadership. BNP was united under the leadership of Khaleda Zia and it will remain so,” Hafiz told reporters in his residence yesterday, adding that he and his followers finally came to accept the leadership of Khaleda Zia nominated secretary general.

Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan also hailed Khaleda’s release and is expected to get reinstated in the party soon. His fate in the party will be discussed in today’s meeting. Minutes before her arrest, Khaleda expelled Bhuiyan from the party.

“The issue of Mannan Bhuiyan will be a crucial agendum in the meeting,” said a senior BNP leader, on condition of anonymity.

Talking to reporters in his residence, Bhuiyan expressed his happiness over the release of Khaleda. “The people were expecting her release. I express my gratitude to the almighty for her release, which will make the party stronger,” he said.

Four lawyers of Khaleda also met her yesterday. Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, who was parliamentary affairs adviser to Khaleda during her last premiership, also met her yesterday.

“Apart from meetings, she also talked to many party leaders and well wishers who called her from many places in the country and from abroad,” said one of Khaleda’s lawyers.

After being released, Khaleda returned to her Shaheed Moinul Road residence in Dhaka Cantonment on Thursday night from where she had been arrested by the joint forces more than a year ago.

The BNP chief also talked to her two sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko over the phone and enquired about their health conditions.

Tarique, who was released on bail on September 3, left the country on Thursday. He is expected to be admitted to a hospital in London soon.

Koko is now undergoing treatment in Bangkok.

Khaleda and her sons are facing a number of corruption and extortion charges.