Payoshi Bisht, Pune
The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the leader of the main opposition, Khaleda Zia, has been ordered to be released by the President of Bangladesh Mohammed Shahabuddin. This decision has come shortly after the elimination of her main competitor Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country amid the recent protests.
Through the press, the presidential press service confirmed the news on Monday, indicating that all the ten members present in a meeting presided by Shahabuddin agreed on a unanimous verdict. Among those present were Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, Heads of the Navy and Air Force and other major leaders of leading political parties BNP & Jamaat-e-Islami.
Former Prime Minister Zia, who is 78 years old, has a history of medical problems and was restricted to a hospital. She was also found guilty in corruption cases in 2018, for which she was jailed for 17 years. She was charged with embezzling $250,000 which was meant for an orphanage trust. In the course of the trial, her supporters, who are from the BNP, have claimed that all the charges levelled against Zia were politically influenced with the view of locking her out of politics, a factor which has been denied by Hasina’s government.
This year in March, a leader of the BNP party of Bangladesh, which is Zia’s party, stated that she is critically ill and is hardly alive as her medical visa for medical treatment outside Bangladesh was rejected. She was admitted to a hospital in June, having suddenly taken ill.
On Sunday night, dozens of people were killed and administrations had to invoke a curfew. However, General Waker-Uz-Zaman said that the curfew would be lifted soon and places such as offices, factories, schools and colleges would run normally.
In his public address to the nation, General Waker Uz-Zaman declared his intention to implement an interim government to handle the situation and assured the nation that he would establish a commission to look into the deaths and other injustices that prevailed during the protest.
The release of Khaleda Zia is a radical change that has created a new context for political change in Bangladesh; nevertheless, it also poses several questions regarding the country’s future.