BNP yesterday formally announced that its chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia along with some of her family members will soon go to Singapore for treatment and will return by the end of the month. The party notified the government officially of the matter through a letter yesterday, seeking permission for the presence of its 15 leaders at the airport to see off the former premier, and urging to ensure security for Khaleda's cantonment residence during her stay abroad. BNP Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan handed over the letter to Home Secretary Abdul Karim. The party's Assistant Office Secretary Emran Saleh Prince accompanied Nazrul during the meeting with the home secretary. Both the leaders later met the party's Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan in his Gulshan residence in the evening to inform him about their meeting with the home secretary.
The leaders however did not confirm the scheduled date of their chairperson's trip to Singapore, but party sources hinted that Khaleda might leave Dhaka on Thursday. Later at a news briefing Nazrul Islam Khan, also the official spokesperson of the party, said Khaleda Zia, her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco, his wife, and their two daughters will accompany the BNP chairperson to Singapore as she and Coco are ill. "Khaleda Zia is sick and she was visibly very weak on Monday when we met her.........her son Coco is also ill, so she had to cancel her trip to Singapore that night but she will go there soon," the BNP joint secretary general said.
Asked if there will be any acting chairperson in absence of Khaleda Zia, Nazrul said, "There has been no instance of giving such responsibility to anyone in the past."
Meanwhile, the BNP chairperson once again urged her party leaders not to express publicly their personal opinions regarding party matters, as everyone will get a chance to say anything in party forums when the military backed interim government will lift the ban on indoor politics. According to Nazrul, Khaleda Zia also urged the party leaders and activists to stay united and to work for better days. "The BNP chairperson assured that everybody will get the chance to express his or her opinion in party forums because there are opportunities to express any opinion inside BNP as it is a democratic party," Nazrul said.