Jail serves as a place of peace, respite for Khaleda, quips AL’s Quader

The Awami League general secretary has a comedic, philosophical take on the BNP criticism over the jailing of Khaleda Zia, saying “a prison is a place of respite and peace for her”.

“She (Khaleda) faces different types of troubles outside. The jail is a place of respite and peace for her,” Obaidul Quader said with a tinge of sarcasm after a programme in Narayanganj on Friday.

“Before the 1/11 episode and after it ended, I was also in the same jail where she is now,” he recalled.

The BNP chief has been kept at the old Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison for corruption in Zia Orphanage Trust on Feb 8.

BNP leaders allege keeping her as a solitary prisoner in a ‘damp, rickety and abandoned’ jailhouse is a violation of human rights.

But Quader said, “Khaleda Zia hasn’t been sent to a place like Robben Island where Nelson Mandela had been.

“How can we keep her in a crowded place? Jail is a secluded place! She can listen to music, read books there and that’s what happens in a jail. There are many books in Dhaka jail.

“And this is good for her; an opportunity for her to get some rest,” he added.

The Awami League leader also said the former prime minister was has been to keep her house help with her, which he said is ‘unprecedented’ in Bangladesh. “No one else has got this facility.”

He claimed the people do not have any sympathy for Khaleda contrary to what her party claims.

“Only one or two BNP leaders are wailing before the media. We haven’t seen any member of the public weeping for Khaleda,” he said.

He warned the ruling party would be ‘compelled’ to organise the next general elections without the BNP if it did not want to go to the polls.

“But we are repeatedly saying that we don’t want any dull elections,” he added.

The Election Commission earlier said it was for the court to decide whether to allow Khaleda run in the elections.

But the BNP maintains it will not contest in the elections with Khaleda in jail and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in power.

Quader thinks the BNP kept its protest programmes against the jailing of Khaleda peaceful until now as ‘the people are not supporting it’.

“The BNP was waiting for the people to pour out into the streets by their hundreds of thousands in reaction to Khaleda’s conviction and jailing for corruption.

"But having not received the response it had expected of the public, the party has changed its strategy and staged peaceful programmes,” he said.

Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, spoke to reporters after inaugurating the superstructure of a bridge in Siddhirganj.