Dhaka: Critically ill former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, who has been living in self-exile in London for 17 years, will return to Bangladesh on December 25, the BNP said on Friday.
The announcement by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) came as its 80-year-old chairperson Zia’s health condition deteriorated and she was placed on ventilator support on Thursday.
“We are pleased to announce that our Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman will return to Dhaka on December 25,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters after a meeting of the party’s policy-making standing committee.
Alamgir added: “The party welcomes him.” Rahman, the self-exiled 60-year-old has been living in London since 2008. For obscure reasons, he has been unable to return home and be with his ailing mother. Instead, he steers the party as its de facto leader through virtual platforms.
The announcement came a day after Bangladesh’s election commission announced that the country’s 13th parliamentary elections would be held on February 12.
BNP earlier said that if Zia is deemed physically unfit, Rahman would be the prime minister if the party were voted to power.
Zia has been undergoing treatment at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital since November 23 for multiple health complications.
On Thursday, the former premier was placed on “elective ventilator support to give rest to her lungs and other vital organs.” The BNP has re-emerged as the frontrunner in Bangladesh’s changed political landscape after a student-led violent street protest toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
