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'Grateful' Khaleda says no to lifelong leadership

BNP standing committee members apparently divided over Saturday decision

Staff Correspondent
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday humbly refused the party's standing committee offer for leading the party for life.
"As a democratic party, BNP always runs by its constitution and there is no provision in the party constitution to lead the party or hold any party post for life," Khaleda said in a statement yesterday.
"As a person with some knowledge of history and faith in democratic norms and values I do not think the party leadership is a permanent post," said the statement signed by Maruf Kamal Khan, former deputy secretary to Khaleda when she was prime minister.
Khaleda's refusal came after the decision of the BNP Standing Committee irked a cross section of people including the government policymakers and leaders of other political parties.
The proposal and the briefing by Standing Committee member Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiky after the committee's meeting on Saturday attracted widespread criticism and created controversy among the rank and file of the party.
The former prime minister, however, expressed gratitude to the standing committee members for the proposal and said the meeting decision was the outcome of emotion felt by party leaders at a certain special moment.
She said party leadership, including the chairperson, has always been elected democratically. "I hope BNP's loyalty to democratic values and spirit will always prevail," she said.
At a meeting on Saturday the BNP Standing Committee, the party's highest policymaking forum, decided that Khaleda would lead the party for life.
At a press conference after the meeting, Tanbir claimed that the meeting unanimously approved the proposal for Khaleda's lifetime leadership.
Sticking to his earlier position, Tanbir said also yesterday that Khaleda would lead the BNP for life on being elected in the council. "If needed, we will ammend the party constitution to see her at the party helm for lifetime," he told reporters at his office in the city’s Dilkusha.
He, however, said they would not need to do that because Khaleda would be elected party chairperson in every council of the party. "If anyone wishes to contest the post, they can, but Khaleda Zia would be elected," Tanbir said, adding that a few intellectuals and political observers have misunderstood the party standing committeedecision.
"She (Khaleda) will lead the party like Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia and Nelson Mandela of South Africa," he said. "We took the decision so that Khaleda Zia cannot be excluded from the party as planned by a certain quarter."
Another Standing Committee member Khandaker Mahbubuddin Ahmad, however, countered Tanbir and said the party did not take any decision to appoint Khaleda as the chairperson for life.
"Confusion has arisen because of the way Tanbir Siddiky spoke," he told reporters at his office at the Supreme Court Bar Association building yesterday.
He saidTanbir gave the proposal but no formal decision was made at the standingcommittee meeting.
BNP Joint Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan echoed him.
"Whoever the chairperson is, Khaleda Zia will be in the leadership," Nazrul told reporters at the Nam flat of BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain. "She will remain our party leader like Ziaur Rahman who we consider as our prime leader," he added.