Columnist Shafik Rehman on Saturday urged BNP leaders to refrain from taking steps to bring the party’s Senior Vice-President Tarique Rahman back home to head the party.
Referring to the “custodial torture” by the last caretaker government that allegedly damaged Tarique’s spinal cord, he said nobody could guarantee that the incumbent government and its sidekicks would not “cripple” him within 10 minutes of his arrival while they were in power.
The opposition campaign in the upcoming elections should be rolling around Khaleda Zia since her election will ensure Tarique’s safe return to the country, Shafik Rehman told a discussion meeting.
The Nationalist Research Foundation organised the discussion titled “Future of Bangladesh and New Generation: Political Thoughts of Tarique Rahman” at the Engineers’ Institute in the capital.
Shafik Rehman also cautioned against the forces that were out “to taint the image of Tarique Rahman.”
Alleging that a “hijacker government” was now at the helm of the country, he said the government had begun taking credits for others’ work ever since they assumed power.
“They hijacked the Jatrabari-Sayedabad flyover the other day. The military had completed the Hatirjheel project earlier and this government took credit for it,” he said.
The veteran journalist also asked the opposition supporters not to label Tarique as the “pride of youth” anymore.
“There is a strong sense of pride in the word ‘pride’ itself. And as you know, pride and bragging are Sheikh Hasina’s things, it is not a property of the Zia family.”
Shafik praised the brilliance of Tarique’s wife Zubaida Rahman, saying “she has recently achieved her master’s in cardiology from London’s Imperial University with highest marks. She got her degree outperforming students from 55 countries. Remember, it is a real degree, not the kind of honorary degrees that our prime minister has received.”
BNP Standing Committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain reaffirmed the party’s commitment not to let any election be arranged without the opposition’s participation.
“The Awami League knows that its very existence will be at stake if elections are held under the caretaker government and that is why it is plotting to hold the elections without us. It is planning to register the address-less party – the BNF – to weaken the nationalist forces,” he said.
A documentary on Tarique Rahman was screened at the programme that featured a speech of Tarique Rahman in which he outlined the development plan for Bangladesh. The speech, originally delivered on July 24 in London, analyses critical issues such as agriculture, education, garment sector, tourism, technology, power and urbanisation, which Tarique thinks important in pursuit of the country’s development.
Former Dhaka University pro-VC AFM Yusuf Haider and former PSC chairman Jeenatunnesa Tahmida Begum, among others, spoke at the function with barrister Nasir Uddin Ashim in the chair.
