Zia first president

After Tarique Rahman, it is now the turn of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. Echoing her elder son yesterday, she said her husband Ziaur Rahman was the country's first president and he proclaimed Bangladesh's independence.
“When real and true history is written, it will be mentioned that Ziaur Rahman proclaimed our independence as the first president of Bangladesh,” she said at a discussion in the capital's Institution of Engineers.
When nobody was saying anything in 1971, it was Ziaur Rahman who proclaimed the country's independence, she went on. “Therefore he is the country's first president.”
Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal organised the meeting to accord reception to freedom fighters.
A freedom fighter's crest was given to the BNP chairperson. She received another crest on behalf of her husband.
BNP's Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, who has been staying in London since 2008, at a discussion on Tuesday first claimed that his father is the first president of Bangladesh because he first proclaimed independence.
Pointing to Sheikh Hasina government's reception to foreigners who helped Bangladesh during the Liberation War, Khaleda said the way foreigners were given awards, it seems no Bangladeshi took part in the war.
It's not fair to undermine one's own country and to give prominence to another, she added.  
At the programme titled “Ziaur Rahman, proclaimer of independence and best pride of Liberation War,” Khaleda also said it is the BNP which is the real force of independence, not the Awami League.
“The Awami League could not accept Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of our independence. But the world and the people of Bangladesh have accepted him as the proclaimer of independence.”
She also said even AL leaders have admitted that it was Ziaur Rahman who declared independence first.
The former PM added she feels proud not as a prime minister or the wife of a president, but as the wife of the proclaimer of independence.
Speaking at the programme, BNP Vice-Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka said, Ziaur Rahman had proclaimed the country's independence first and identified himself as the supreme commander of the war as well as the president of the country.
“But later he declared independence of the country on behalf of Bangabandhu due to a changed political situation,” added Khoka.
He also claimed Bangabandhu had wished to become the prime minister of an undivided Pakistan, not an independent Bangladesh.
Also yesterday, Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said a case might be filed against Tarique Rahman for the statement.
"Legal action might be taken against Tarique Rahman for his statement that Ziaur Rahman announced the independence and he was the first president of Bangladesh. This remark is a clear violation of the constitution and distortion of history."
While talking to reporters at his personal office at Karwan Bazar, he said, "Ziaur Rahman himself never claimed to be the first president. But his successors are trying to mislead the nation."
It may be mentioned here, in line with the historical record, that moments before his arrest early on March 26, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Bangladesh's independence. His message was passed on to Awami League leader MA Hannan in Chittagong, who read it out from Kalurghat radio station.
US government records also testify to Bangabandhu's declaration of independence within moments of the crackdown by the Pakistan army.
On March 27, 1971, then Major Ziaur Rahman appeared at the Kalurghat radio station and announced Bangladesh's independence on behalf of the Father of the Nation. In the course of his brief address, Zia mentioned Bangabandhu as “our great national leader” and “supreme commander” no fewer than four times.
Regarding Sadeque Hossain Khoka's allegation that Bangabandhu wished to become prime minister of Pakistan, the facts show the opposite.
By March 24, 1971, as the talks between the Awami League, the Pakistan People's Party and the Yahya Khan junta approached an abortive end, Bangabandhu instructed his team to propose a confederation of Pakistan as a way out of the crisis.
Earlier, in his historic March 7 speech, he emphatically declared, “I don't want the prime ministership. I want the rights of the people of this land.”