A house of discord, not an apple of discord

WE have had dismaying instances of non-issues attracting greater attention than the many burning issues besetting us. This time we have another non-issue of sorts, if one can call it so from a national viewpoint, which is going to engage us until when we do not know.
The issue (?) is about cancellation of the "one-taka lease" of Begum Zia's Dhaka cantonment house. The government says it has had to cancel the lease, as it does not have any legal basis.
Some government high-ups have cited two main reasons, one of them being the abuse of the house for political and commercial purposes in violation of Cantonment Board rules, and the other the illegality as per the Rajuk Act of allotting two government houses to one individual.
Looking from the legal point of view, the move may not have been without a plausible ground. It is incumbent upon a government to recover valuable state property and put the record straight. Strictly arguing, a wrong ought not to be perpetuated as a bad precedent.
It is notable that the sympathetic, humanitarian ground on which the state property was given to Begum Zia does not exist now for the obvious reason of her family's possession of fabulous resources in the last 28 years.
Whatever the reasons shown by the government, Begum Zia and her party men cannot bring themselves to accept the dispensation. They have burst into a furious rage protesting against the decision, and are bent upon forcing the government to withdraw it. They even threaten a movement to topple the less-than-hundred-day government.
They will perhaps seek a decision in the court. One would appreciate them resorting to the latter move. While our independent judiciary is in operation to safeguard the people's legal rights, it will certainly be the best of options to leave the matter for disposal by the court.
Once the matter is placed in the court, there will be little justification for BNP to create a tense situation over a sub-judice matter. Should they choose to make a fuss over it, more for political gains than for anything else, the people will be able to understand the motive.
The tussle centres on the legality or otherwise of the government's scrapping of the lease of Begum Zia's cantonment house. Here arises a question -- was any such sympathetic gift in terms of houses worth crores of taka leased out to any other slain army officer or political leaders' families? If it was, what happened to that later on?
The answer is not far to seek. A government house that had been allotted by president's order to the family of slain liberation war sector commander Maj Gen Khaled Mussarraf was reportedly (Channel-I TV talks on April 9) transferred to two relatives of the ex-premier during her rule.
Besides, no such house was ever given to the families of the four iconic national leaders who were brutally killed inside Dhaka jail in 1975.
The allotments of the houses that were given to the two daughters of the slain father of the nation were cancelled by Begum Zia's 4-party alliance government within a month of its ascending to power. Did Begum Zia's government ever care about the needs of the orphaned daughters of no less a person than Bangabandhu?
Some TV discussants suspected that the cancellation of the lease was revenge. Where did these elites hide themselves when the heartless treatment was meted out to the helpless families of the slain army officer and political leaders? Why did they not sound a single word of protest against the gross injustice done then?
That being Begum Zia's government's way of doing justice to the families of the murdered VIPs, what sort of a better deal could she expect from the government? If one does not show respect to another's need or sentiment, how can one expect the same from others?
Must not the security of the cantonment come into reckoning first? I earnestly hope that it will also be in the mind of our responsible leader of the opposition in parliament. She can afford to give up her claim. Let the "house of discord" be returned to the state rather than kept hanging like an apple of discord.

Md. Ali Akbar is a Deputy Secretary.