Khaleda uses no mobile phone, BNP says after Tarana remarks

Khaleda Zia has no need to register a mobile phone SIM card with her biometric details because she does not use one, the BNP’ has clarified.

“There is no question of the party chairperson registering her SIM because she does not own a personal cell phone,” Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told bdnews24.com on Sunday.
 
“There are landlines at her home and office. She uses those to communicate.”

His remarks came after State Minister for Telecommunications Tarana Halim earlier in the morning told reporters that the BNP chief did not biometrically register any SIM.

A leader of the ruling Awami League had recently called the former prime minister ‘irresponsible’ for not re-registering her SIM  card by submitting her fingerprints.

Reporters asked Tarana about the status of Khaleda’s mobile phones after her meeting with representatives of the operators on Sunday.

The state minister said, “As far as I know, she (Khaleda) has no SIM cards registered under her name. Maybe she uses others’ phones to communicate.

“She has not re-registered the SIM card with biometric details. If she has not done so, it’s probably been deactivated by now.”

All important individuals of the state including the president, the prime minister and Cabinet members have completed the re-registration process, said Tarana.

The state minister herself stood in line at a mobile phone operator’s customer care centre in Dhaka to submit her fingerprints after the biometric registration and re-registration process began in December last year.

Tarana on Sunday expressed disappointment at Khaleda for not going for the biometric re-registration.

“We have been hurt a bit as she did not register. We would have been happier if she did.

"We had hoped that as the chairperson of a political party Khaleda Zia would biometrically register her SIM as a sensible citizen."

Amidst political tension in October 2013 ahead of the general election, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had tried to reach her arch political rival over the VIP red telephone, but failed.

It came to light at the time that the red phone in Khaleda’s Gulshan residence had been out of order.

The two leaders then spoke on the mobile phones of their aides for about 37 minutes.

The BTCL later fixed Khaleda’s red phone and it has been active since.

Of the 132 million active SIM cards throughout Bangladesh, 116 million have been re-registered after the government had threatened to shut the unregistered connections.