Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
is sent to prison, Jatiya Party
...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament...
Chairman HM Ershad has said.
"Before 1/11, Khaleda Zia told a rally in Mymensingh that jail would be Ershad's destination and Ershad will have to come out of jail dead. Khaleda thought she could come to power again. But I am alive. I am waiting eagerly to see who comes out dead," he told the biennial council of JaPa's Chittagong city chapter.
"We have seen the true nature of parliamentary democracy. We are the real opposition party which has established parliamentary democracy by criticising the government," said Ershad, also the special envoy to the premier.
Speaking as the chief guest in the programme at the port city's GEC Convention Centre yesterday, he said: "The people of the country are not at peace. They cannot speak; they have become deaf and dumb. Democracy has been buried 100 feet below the earth. People do not have the right to speak or write; their voices have been gagged."
Ershad also blamed ruling party men of grabbing lands of the minority people who voted the government to power.
"The Hindu people are leaving the country. In the past, the country's population consisted of 10% Hindus but now the figure has come down to a meagre 6%," he said.
Urging the Hindus not to leave the country, the former president said: "The day is not far-off when Jatiya Party will assume power again. Please wait for that day to come."
Ershad also criticised the government's decision to impose 7.5% VAT on private university tuition fees.