Bangladesh lifts restrictions on former Premiers

BANGLADESH: Bangladesh’s emergency government on Wednesday said it had lifted restrictions on two former prime ministers whom it had been trying to exile.

In a U-turn, the government said it would drop a ban on Sheikh Hasina Wajed returning to the country and stated there would be no restriction on the movements of her bitter rival Khaleda Zia.

“The government says clearly that there is no pressure on Khaleda Zia to go abroad and there have been no restrictions on her movements,” the government said in a statement, read out by information officer Makhan Lal Hira. Zia has been under virtual house arrest over recent weeks.

The government had also withdrawn a ban on Sheikh Hasina entering the country.

The statement followed a cabinet meeting to decide the fate of the two women leaders.

A minister said earlier that the meeting would discuss “whether the two leaders are going to stay in the country or be absent for a while.”

The minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, also denied that the government had been trying to compel the two party leaders to leave Bangladesh, but said Zia could face corruption charges if she remained.

Sheikh Hasina has already had murder and extortion accusations filed against her, although she has vowed to return and fight them in person.

The military-backed interim government had been trying to exile both women as part of its campaign to clean up the country’s notoriously corrupt politics.

On Sunday it blocked Sheikh Hasina from returning from London after declaring her a threat to national security. The Awami League held power between 1996 and 2001.

“There is huge anxiety, if she (Sheikh Hasina) comes back. What will happen? Last year during political violence we saw people dancing on dead bodies,” the minister added.

Zia had reportedly agreed to go into exile in return for leniency for her two sons, who face corruption allegations.

But attempts to send her to Saudi Arabia hit a stumbling block early this week after the authorities there became reluctant to accept an unwilling guest.

The two women have held power alternately since 1991 and stand accused of misrule that led to widespread violence and a political crisis in January.

Dubbed the “battling begums,” the pair are reported to loathe each other and are said not to have spoken in years.

They represent rival Bangladeshi dynasties that have dominated the country’s political landscape since it won independence in 1971.

Zia is the widow of former president Ziaur Rahman, who was killed in an attempted military coup in 1981 and played a leading role in the country’s independence struggle.

Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s independence leader, who was the nation’s first prime minister and president. He was killed in a military coup in 1975.

The new government has pledged to hold elections by the end of 2008 after implementing far-reaching reforms to get democracy back on track.

Dhaka, Thursday, AFP