Dhaka, August 15 – The BNP will arrange ‘doa’ and ‘milad mahfil ‘ across the country including the capital city of Dhaka Friday on the occasion of 75th birthday of party chairperson Khaleda Zia in an apparent shifting of her birthday programme from August 15.
The BNP this time avoided August 15 in observance of birthday of Khaleda Zia, who is now serving her 17-year in jail term in two graft cases since February 8 last year.
The party for the last three years did not take programme to cut cake to mark the birthday of the former premier believed to avoid conflict with the National Mourning Day on the same day.
The party will arrange doa mahfi all over the country seeking her early recovery from illness and long life, said the press statement signed by party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
As part of the programme, the BNP centrally will organize doa and milad mahfil at party’s central office at 11:00am today.
The former premier turned ‘75′ on Thursday. Earlier the BNP marked her 72nd and 73rd and 74th birthdays through holding doa mahfil instead of cutting any cake amid criticisms from different quarters including the ruling Awami League leaders for celebrating her birthday on the National Mourning Day,
According to the biodata of Khaleda Zia submitted to the Parliament Secretariat when she was made the opposition leader last suggests that she was born on August 15, 1945. According to BNP’s website, Khaleda was born on August 15, 1945, in Dinajpur district.
However, the Awami League leaders have long been claiming that her birthday is September 5, 1945 as per her marriage certificate while August 19, 1946 as per her first passport.
The BNP chairperson decided and refrained from celebrating her birthday on August 15 in 2016 and her decision was treated as a good political gesture. August 15 is observed as the National Mourning Day, which commemorates the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Khaleda’s decision not to celebrate her birthday with fanfare on August 15 was lauded, as it ended two decades of controversy and criticism centred on her birthday bash.
The BNP chairperson began celebrating her birthday since August 15, 1993, after being elected Bangladesh’s prime minister in the 1991 national elections. But she made the celebration formal after her party lost power in 2006 and went on to occupy the opposition benches in parliament.
Khaleda began celebrating her birthday with party leaders and activists at her Minto Road residence on August 15, 2006.
Khaleda, who had passed the SSC examination from Dinajpur Girls High School in 1960, got married to then army officer Captain Ziaur Rahman in that same year. After the 1975 changeover, Ziaur Rahman became the martial law administrator and President of the country.
Khaleda stepped into politics two years after the death of her husband on May 30, 1981. She joined BNP as its vice-chairman in 1983. She became the chairperson on May 10, 1984.
Khaleda had become the country’s first woman prime minister after the end of HM Ershad-led autocratic regime in 1991. She also took oath as premier in 1996 and 2001. BNP had boycotted the 2014 general elections. The party took part in December 30 parliamentary elections under the banner of Jatiya Oikyafront and 20-party alliance keeping Khaleda behind the bar.
The BNP got only six seats while Ganaforum, an ally of the Jatiya Oikyafront two from among 300 constituencies. The BNP and Ganaforum lawmakers joined parliament reviewing their decision not to go parliament as they alleged the elections were largely manipulated. – Staff Reporter
