By Rupak Bhattacharjee*
While the aam admi, or common man, of Bangladesh has got much-needed reprieve from continued street violence and hartals, former premier Khaleda Zia’s political future appears to be uncertain as she faces trials in at least 10 cases for her alleged involvement in misappropriation of funds, loan default and instigating violence. The 69 year-old leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) could be jailed for life if proved guilty in some of the charges brought against her.
In a significant development on April 5, Khaleda was granted bail in two graft cases after she appeared before Dhaka’s Third Metropolitan Special Court. Khaleda was charged with siphoning off about $650,000 from Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust during her second term as prime minister from 2001 to 2006. Both the trusts are named after her late husband, Ziaur Rahman — the first military ruler of the country.
These two cases against Khaleda, her eldest son and BNP senior vice president, Tareque Rahman, and seven others were filed by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2008. The trial proceedings began in early 2014. Khaleda was indicted in both the cases and her son in the orphanage case. On February 25, the court issued an arrest warrant against her after she skipped several hearings in the cases. The court also ordered appearance of her son Tareque, now staying in Britain, as another prime accused in the two graft cases.
Khaleda refused to attend the court hearings citing health and security reasons. She came to the court on April 5 amid tight security. The judge set May 5 as the next date for hearing the cases. Khaleda’s lawyers rejected the charges saying they are politically motivated and aimed at destroying her family, which the authorities deny.
The court’s decision to grant her bail was seen by many as an indication of easing tension in the politically volatile South Asian nation. The prosecution lawyer earlier told the court they would not oppose bail application filed by Khaleda’s counsels considering her “status, social and political dignity and age”. The judge reportedly said he had no wish to send Khaleda to jail, given her age and that if she was found innocent, she would be acquitted. It may be added that the arrest warrant has never been executed.
In another encouraging sign, the BNP headquarters at Naya Paltan area of the capital city was opened on April 5 after three months and police allowed the party activists to enter there. Fearing political violence, the police had locked the BNP central office on January 3. Meanwhile, street demonstrations and transport blockades were halted on the eve of World Cup cricket tournament in which Bangladesh participated. The Awami League (AL) government also stopped its crackdown on BNP leaders and activists.
These developments of the last few weeks have provided huge relief to the people from non-stop violence and transport blockade that has claimed more than 120 lives and left thousands injured. The BNP leads a 20-party opposition alliance which enforced indefinite hartals across the country demanding Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and mid-term polls under a non-partisan neutral caretaker administration. Prime Minister Hasina insists that the next general elections will be held only after the completion of her five-year term in 2019.
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It seems Khaleda will have to wait till the 11th Jatiya Sangsad elections to stage a comeback to power. In the meantime, she has to cope with the trials in several other cases. On March 22, Bangladesh’s First Money Loan Court summoned Khaleda, her Malaysia-based daughter-in-law and two granddaughters to explain their positions in writing on the charges of loan default brought by Sonali Bank — a leading state-owned commercial bank in Bangladesh. On October 2, 2012, the bank officials registered a case against the directors of their family-owned company Dandy Dyeing Ltd. for defaulting on a loan of $5.8 million which was borrowed on October 16, 2001. The judge fixed April 12 for framing and hearing the case.
In addition to these, Khaleda is facing three corruption cases, namely the Niko, Gatco and Barapukuria coal mine graft cases. The ACC filed the first two cases in 2007 while the third one was registered in 2008. Reports suggest that the chief justice of Supreme Court has recently assigned a new High Court bench to deal with four separate petitions submitted by Khaleda challenging the legality of proceedings in three graft cases against her. Besides, she has been confronting at least four charges of inciting violence during the anti-government street agitations.
The allegations of corruption against Khaleda surfaced earlier too. She was incarcerated for about two years (2007-2008) when the then military-backed caretaker government detained her as part of a nationwide crackdown on corruption. The alleged involvement of BNP’s top leaders, including Khaleda and her son, in money laundering and other financial irregularities was one of the key reasons for the party’s rout in the December 2008 elections.
It cannot be denied that BNP’s founder Zia ur Rahman first institutionalised corruption in Bangladesh. In its bid to expand the civilian support base, Zia’s military regime doled out state largesse to numerous businessmen and potential entrepreneurs. They took loans from state-funded financial institutions in the name of launching new industrial or business units that in most cases existed only on paper. The ongoing money laundering cases against Khaleda and her family members are to be seen in the light of the country’s past political trends. It is a popular belief in Bangladesh that Zia laid the foundation of corruption and former president H.M. Ershad eventually built a palace over it. Thus rooting out corruption from the polity is a challenge of governance for the ruling AL.
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One more positive development in the recent weeks has been BNP’s decision to take part in the upcoming mayoral and local council polls. The BNP’s performance in the local body elections of 2013 was impressive. It remains to be seen how the party fares this time because the common people of Bangladesh tend to support the party which is viewed as underdog. But at the same time, the BNP leaders need to guard against over optimism as it has been noticed in some South Asian countries, including India and Sri Lanka, during the last one year that corruption issues dominated the electioneering and largely determined the outcome of the polls.
Khaleda’s fate in Bangladesh politics hangs in balance given the sheer number of trials she has been facing. Khaleda’s conviction in one or more cases may further erode her popularity among the electorate. It will be interesting to see how the ex-premier charts her political course in the coming days.
*Dr. Rupak Bhattacharjee is an independent analyst based in Delhi. He can be reached at contributions@spsindia.in
Source: EurasiaReview
