 DHAKA - Bangladesh’s last prime minister Khaleda Zia has asked the military-backed government to immediately free her son and allow her one last party meeting before she leaves for exile, a report said Friday. Zia ‘has been trying to delay the departure as the government is yet to settle some issues including her demand that her son Tareque be allowed to go with her,’ a family source told the leading New Age newspaper.
The interim military-backed government is forcing Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), out of the country as part of a campaign to clean up the countryÂ’s dysfunctional and notoriously corrupt political system. Her arch-rival, Awami League leader Shaikh Hasina Wajed, has also been barred from returning to the country from holiday. Many blame the two harridans women for the political turmoil that led to the imposition of emergency rule in January and the cancellation of elections later that month.
A deal for her to leave for Saudi Arabia quietly reportedly involves authorities showing leniency for her two sons, who face corruption and extortion allegations as part of the interim governmentÂ’s crackdown. Her elder son Tareque Rahman, however, is still behind bars.
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‘The government is yet to fulfil another of her demands to allow her to meet some senior BNP leaders to settle how the party would be run in her absence,’ the source told the paper.
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But the Daily Star newspaper said Zia was expected to meet her elder son on Friday at Dhaka central jail before possibly flying out of the country later in the day. ‘Khaleda along with her younger son, two daughters-in-law and three grandchildren might fly for Saudia Arabia on Friday,’ a source told the newspaper. |