Tarique likely to stay abroad during parliamentary poll

Tarique Rahman, recently released from detention, is likely to leave the country this week for treatment abroad and might not return before the parliamentary election slated for the third week of December, BNP and family sources said.
Many junior leaders of BNP, who threw their weight behind the young senior joint secretary general hoping to enjoy his blessings in the party and ahead of the poll, will however desperately try to bring him back as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is also expected to be released on bail this week as lawyers of the former prime minister decided to file bail petitions in two of the graft cases against her.
Out of the four cases filed against the BNP chief, she already got bail in two -- Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and Barapukuria coal mine scam case. But she has yet to petition for bail in Niko and Gatco graft cases.
"We will move the petitions on Sunday seeking bail in the two cases," Barrister Nasiruddin Asim told The Daily Star yesterday.
He hoped that Khaleda will be released through the same judicial process which had set free her elder son Tarique.
Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said on Thursday that Khaleda Zia will be released through judicial procedures, for which she must file bail prayers in the cases she is facing.
Tarique was freed on Wednesday after getting bail in 13 different cases, 18 months into his arrest by the army-led joint forces on March 7, 2007.
He is still staying in a cabin of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital, where he has been undergoing treatment for ailments.
His close aides said he will visit his mother in a day or two before leaving the country, at the special jail she has been detained in.
He received a new passport on Thursday and a process to obtain visas for England and Germany was on, applications for which will be submitted on Sunday.
Tarique is opting to go to London first but he will not stay there for long. He is expected to fly to Germany from there, where he is expected to stay for a long time, his aides added.
A senior BNP leader said Khaleda, now detained in a makeshift prison on the parliament building premises, also wants her elder son to leave the country quickly for staying abroad during the national poll.
He said soon after release, Khaleda will take initiatives to reunite the party split into factions over 'reform issues' after her arrest a year ago.
"The expulsion order of former secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan is also expected to be canceled after her release while room will be created for sidelined reformist leaders in the party," the leader told The Daily Star last night.
Another leader said, Khaleda asked her party's senior leaders to be more accommodative towards the sidelined leaders and not to allow untoward incidents like the one that had taken place at BSMMU Hospital after Tarique's release, where two so called reformist leaders were manhandled by his loyalists.
"It's not Tarique but madam herself will be the leader of the party," the BNP leader said when asked whether Tarique will remain as influential as he was.
BNP Vice-president MK Anwar said reunification of the party will not be a problem once Khaleda Zia is released, but declined to say whether the 'reformist leaders' will be accommodated.
Quoting Khaleda, he said Tarique will not have direct involvement in party politics in a bid to keep opportunists at bay. "Things will be different this time around," he added.
Meanwhile, Tarique's wife Zubaida Rahman yesterday ejected from his hospital cabin a few 'controversial leaders and activists of the party formerly close to Hawa Bhaban', according to witnesses.
Hawa Bhaban used to be known as the alternative power centre during the immediate past tenure of BNP-led four-party alliance government, allegedly from where invisible strings of power used to be pulled.
In addition to reuniting the party, the BNP chairperson will also take initiatives to form an alliance with like minded political parties to counter Awami League (AL)-led 14-party coalition in the coming days, Anwar added.