Zia back, pressure up on Yunus to hold polls in 'quickest possible' time

DHAKA :Amid heightened political tensions and a show of mass support in Dhaka, BNP chairperson and ailing former PM Khaleda Zia returned from London on Tuesday after four months of treatment, her return seen as a potential turning point in the opposition ’s push for elections and a return to democratic governance.

Zia, arch rival of deposed PM Sheikh Hasina, and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been urging interim govt to hold elections in Dec this year. BNP is currently the major political party, and Zia’s return came as BNP continued to mount pressure on the interim govt to hold elections in the “quickest possible” time.

The govt and its chief advisor Muhammad Yunus , however, want to pursue its reform agenda first, while the recently floated student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) is making efforts to organise nationwide networks. NCP members recently said elections under the existing “pro-BNP” bureaucracy are unlikely to be fair and they want reforms initiated by Yunus govt to be carried out first. “We believe Zia’s presence will make it easier to restore democracy,” a senior BNP politician said.