By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demanded that the Sheikh Hasina government secure a court order before enforcing a notice to evict their chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia from her Dhaka cantonment residence.
One of Zia’s aides demanded that the government secure a court order before evicting her from her residence for which a 15 day notice was served last Sunday.
Preparations are on for moving the Dhaka High Court to challenge the notice asking Zia to vacate the colonial bungalow in Dhaka Cantonment that was allotted to her in 1981.
Moudud Ahmed, a former law minister and one of the key advisers of Zia in legal matters, Tuesday said that the defence ministry notice cited five grounds, but did not specify whether any of the grounds had been breached, New Age newspaper said.
“The government will need to move court first to cancel or declare illegal the deed, by which the president, on July 10, 1981 registered 2.72 acres of land in the cantonment in the name of Khaleda,” Moudud Ahmed told media.
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain at a Chhatra Dal rally in Dhaka Tuesday asked the government to withdraw the evacuation notice issued to Khaleda and warned the government “not to push the country towards anarchy”.
Media reports have said that the BNP has been in disarray since it suffered a shock defeat in last December’s parliamentary poll. The house eviction issue could help unite the rank and file that are still debating the causes of the poll defeat.
In Bangladesh, agitations by students and the youth have been precursors to mass movements.
The government denies allegations that this is a tit-for-tat against Zia who cancelled a house allotment, when she was the prime minister, to Hasina’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana.
Hasina has said that she wants Zia’s house to build homes for the families of those who died during the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny.
Eighty one people, including 55 Bangladesh Army officers, were killed in the rebellion for which the government has alleged “a conspiracy by outside elements”.