11th Parliament: BNP expels Zahidur for taking oath

Zahidur Rahman for taking oath as a member of the 11th parliament violating the party’s decision.

The party decided to expel him at a meeting of its highest policy-making body -- the National Standing Committee -- at Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office in Dhaka last night.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the announcement to reporters after the meeting.

BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman took part in the meeting via skype.

In a surprise move, Zahid, the BNP lawmaker from Thakurgaon-3, took oath as an MP on Thursday, going against the party’s decision of him not joining parliament.

“Our party decision was to not join parliament. But Zahid did it violating our decision. And thus, we, in principle, expelled him from the party and revoked his primary membership,” Fakhrul said.

The BNP leader also reiterated the allegation that there was government pressure on his party to take part in parliament.

The meeting also decided to write to the Speaker of parliament and the Election Commission to revoke Zahid’s parliamentary membership and as a last resort, to go to the court, two standing committee members said.

The same measures will be taken if any other BNP lawmaker-elect takes the oath, they said.

The party will try its best so that the others do not take oath, and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, a BNP standing committee member, has been asked to keep close contact with them.

On Friday, Fakhrul said his party was not worried over Zahid’s oath-taking as he did it “under pressure from the government.”

Hours after Fakhrul’s comments, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a media briefing on Friday, said there was no pressure from the government in this regard.

Zahid is the first among the six BNP-MPs elect to have taken oath. Party insiders say Zahid’s decision has put the BNP in an awkward position as it rejected the December 30 polls results alleging widespread irregularities.

Some party leaders said Zahid’s move might encourage others to take oath too.