Curtain falls on political drama with ‘Battling Begums’ thrown behind bars

Two lodged in close quarters in compound of parliament they led by turns

The curtain dropped in a dramatic irony on the country’s suspense-fraught political scenes with the two embroiled former Prime Ministers and powerful politicians now having been thrown into prison on graft charges.   Sheikh Hasina of Awami League and Khaleda Zia of BNP have been run in within a span of 49 days on charges of extortion and corruption in approving projects in power and shipping sectors respectively during the rule of their regimes.

They had fought in the anti-autocracy movement in the 90s for restoration of democracy and ruled the country by turns since 1991 after the fall of the dictatorial regime of President general Ershad.
 
Although they had not been even on talking terms in leading their irreconcilably rival political camps, both the firebrand leaders are now detained in close quarters in special makeshift jails in the compound of the national parliament they had led by turns.

Both Hasina and Khaleda, after arrest, pleaded not guilty to magistrate courts and described the cases against them as conspiratorial.

Sheikh Hasina was arrested on July 16 in an extortion case involving Tk 2.99 crore filed by Azam J Chowdhury of East Coast Private Trading Ltd. She is also facing three other extortion cases and one case of political murder.

The Anti-Corruption Commission Sunday filed another case of extortion of Tk 3 crore for allowing the setting up of a barge-mounted power plant in Khulna.

Although Khaleda Zia had not been arrested until early Monday, the caretaker government on “security” reasons restricted her movements.

Around midnight Sunday, the anti-graft watchdog ACC filed a corruption charge with Tejgaon police station against Khaleda Zia and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coko for awarding contract to GATCO for cargo handling at Chittagong and Kamlapur inland depots in exchange for kickbacks.

Khaleda and Coko were arrested from their Dhaka Cantonment residence at 6, Shaheed Mainul Road at about 7:45am and produced in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court for hearings on their pleas.

Magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah rejected their bail petitions and ordered Khaleda into jail custody and gave her son Coko to police under a 7-day remand at about 9:50am.

On March 8, Khaleda’s elder son and BNP’s senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman, was arrested from the same residence in Dhaka Cantonment on extortion charges.

The bitter nemesis descended on both Hasina and Khaleda with the installation of the army-backed caretaker government headed Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed on January 12, following political turmoil over the issues of general election.

President Professor Iajuddin Ahmed imposed a state of emergency on January 11 and cancelled the January 22 parliamentary elections as the opposition camp led by Awami League president Sheikh Hasina boycotted the polls on allegation that her prime rival Khaleda Zia set all machinations in place to rig the elections.

Assuming power, the Fakhruddin government waged war on corruption and rounded up nearly 200 former Ministers and MPs of both Khaleda and Hasina’s governments in a crackdown in February.

Some leading businessmen and former bureaucrats were also reined in on corruption charges. Already nearly two dozen ministers and MPs have been tried and sentenced in varied terms by special anti-corruption courts.

Before her arrest, Hasina had made veteran leader Zillur Rahman acting President of the Awami League. AL general secretary Abdul Jalil was also put behind bars under the emergency power rules.

And Khaleda sacked BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and joint secretary general Ashraf Hossain for campaigning party reforms in the changed situation that could minus her under what was perceived as ‘minus-two’ formula of political reforms. Bhuiyan’s primary membership of BNP was also cancelled.

In absence of Hasina and Khaleda, Zillur Rahman and Khandaker Delwar Hossain assumed the onus of holding their forts and freeing their leaders.

Both the camps vowed to fight legal battles to free Hasina and Khaleda Zia from extortion and corruption cases.

--UNB, Dhaka