Leader of the Opposition and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia turns 69 on Thursday. The celebration of her birthday will begin at the family level through cutting a cake at the wee hours at her Gulshan residence, party sources said. The main opposition BNP and its associate bodies have chalked out various programmes to celebrate the birthday in a befitting manner while the nation will observe the 38th death anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the National Mourning Day. Party’s associate bodies will cut a cake around 11am on Thursday at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office to celebrate the birthday. Senior party leaders will be present there, BNP assistant office secretary Asadul Karim Shahin told UNB on Wednesday. Khaleda is also likely to cut a cake at her Gulshan office at 8pm and exchange greetings with party leaders and activists on the occasion. The party high command was learned to have asked its leaders and activists to mark the event in a befitting manner maintaining discipline. Born on August 15, 1945, Khaleda became the country’s first woman Prime Minister in 1991 as well as the second in the Muslim world after Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Khaleda, the widow of assassinated President Ziaur Rahman and mother of Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, ruled the country for over 10 years. She has been elected to five separate parliamentary constituencies in the general elections of 1991, 1996 and 2001. (Sources: UNB)
