Khaleda goes to London this week

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will be reunited with her family members when she visits London this week.

“The chairperson is going to the UK for medical treatment…. The date of her departure depends on a doctor's appointment in London,” BNP spokesperson Asaduzzaman Ripon told a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan central office yesterday.

Party insiders said Khaleda during the weeklong trip will discuss with her elder son Tarique Rahman some crucial issues, including reorganisation of the BNP, its failure in anti-government movement and the next course of action.

She might address a few meetings of Bangladesh expatriates in London. Besides, Tarique and some top BNP leaders are trying to arrange meetings between Khaleda and some leaders of the ruling Conservative and opposition Labour parties.

Some BNP leaders loyal to Tarique have already reached London to work on Khaleda's ensuing trip.

Tarique, senior vice-chairman of BNP, had left home for London in 2008 for treatment. He along with his wife Zubaida Khan Rahman and daughter Zaima Zarnaz Rahman have been staying there even since. Khaleda met Tarique in May 2011 in London.

The former prime minister's London trip might help her avoid the controversy of celebrating her birthday on August 15 -- the day Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members were assassinated in 1975, according to sources in BNP. 

Khaleda is likely to spend the day (August 15) with her family members in London. Widow of Khaleda's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, Sharmila Rahman and her two daughters Zafira and Zahia might also fly to London from Malaysia to join her, said a relative of the BNP chief.

Koko died of cardiac arrest in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in January.

The BNP chief is deeply disappointed and aggrieved by the party's retreat from the anti-government movement in April and its poor organisational structure, said party sources.

Khaleda didn't join any political programme since April 5 when she returned to her Gulshan residence from her political office after staying there for 92 days during the anti-government movement that started on January 6.

Tarique has been facing trial in at least 16 cases, including the August 21 grenade attack case and Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.