DHAKA, 1 September 2007 — Bank accounts of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, her son Arafat Rahman Koko and nine relatives are to be frozen on the directions of the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR), media reports said.
Quoting unnamed sources in the law enforcement agencies, The Daily Star newspaper said the government was readying to file at least three graft cases against Khaleda and her family members.
The government is also preparing a case over her wealth statement. The wealth statement she submitted to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has some gross anomalies, the sources added.
The move is identical to the Aug 2 action of a freeze on accounts of the other former prime minister, Hasina Wajed, who is in jail since mid-June on charges of extortion.
Within a week, however, the government relented. Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told the newspaper that if the family members badly needed money, the government might relax the NBR order.
This consideration came because Hasina’s husband, Wajed Miah, is critically ill and under medical treatment.
Besides, Hasina’s lawyers had expressed concern about the continued freeze on the operations of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Bangabandhu Memorial Trust and Welfare Trust for Grenade Attack Victims.
These accounts belong to non-profit organizations that give out doles to political victims and fund non-political activities.
In Khaleda’s case, the freeze was delayed as she and her family surrendered unaccounted funds and volunteered to pay tax.
The NBR curbs cover all bank accounts and deposits in the name of family members, some of whom are living abroad, including minor grandchildren of the two women leaders who ruled Bangladesh between 1991 and October last year.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s first attempt this year to resume a dialogue with political parties on electoral reforms is stuck because the government is refusing to relax curbs on their activities.
The Election Commission has said it intends to go ahead with its plans to discuss the reforms and hopes the government will relax the curbs at least for the period of the talks.
The government, however, says that it would have lifted the curbs but for the three-day riots that broke out this month in Dhaka University and quickly spread to other campuses, New Age newspaper reported yesterday. With many of their leaders in jail or being prosecuted for corruption, political parties see a hope in the invitation from the poll body.
They argue that to hold any dialogue with the government and the election panel, they need to hold internal consultations. The blanket ban on political activity now in force does not allow them to do that.
The Election Commission hopes that the government “will open a window and create an atmosphere for the dialogue” by lifting the ban on politics, even if conditionally, New Age said.
“Thirteen days remain before we start the dialogues, and a congenial environment will be created by that time,” Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain was quoted as saying Thursday.
Starting Sept. 12, the Election Commission wants to conduct a dialogue with political parties, calling them in batches. Its itinerary will extend till end-November.
Political parties are demanding early elections. But Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government has set a timetable that envisages general elections, postponed from January this year amidst political turmoil, only for end-2008.
