Bangladesh was earlier a part of Pakistan. In 1971 the Eastern part of Pakistan broke away citing discrimination against the Bengali population. After a brief war, the state of Bangladesh was a reality and from 1971, the nation has been dogged by corruption and assassinations. Now the court in Dacca has sentenced the ex-prime minister of Bangladesh to five years in prison. She is charged with misappropriating 3.1 million Taka funds donated to a charity. The Indian Express has reported that Begum Khaleda 72 and her son have both been convicted along with four other accomplices.
and given a ten-year jail term.
Assassinations
Begum Zia had taken over the leadership of the BNP after the assassination of her husband general Zia, who was president of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been dogged by assassinations and the founder of the state Shiekh Mujibar Rahman was shot dead along with his family by army soldiers in 1975. His daughter Begum Hasina and her children escaped as they were out of Bangladesh.
The Begum returned to Bangladesh and took over the reins of the Awami party and is now the PM of Bangladesh. She ensured that most perpetrators of the murder of Shiekh Mujibar were arrested, tried and hanged, though over four decades had passed.
Begum Khaleda
Both the ladies are daggers drawn and the anti-corruption bureau after due investigation filed the charge sheet against Begum Khaleda.
She tried her best to stall the trial, but the Supreme Court cleared the decks and directed the trial to continue in the lower court, The judge who read the conviction which ran into 642 pages has convicted the former PM of misappropriation of over 3. million Taka. he said that he was giving her a lenient sentence keeping in view that she was the ex-pm of Bangladesh.
Ramifications
Begum Khaleda has denied the charges but she is skating on thin ice.
Her supporters declared a lockdown in Dacca and clashed with the police. The repercussion of the conviction has wide ramifications. Begum Khaleda has to be barred from contesting any election as per the electoral law which specifies that anybody convicted of a jail term of two years or more is not eligible to contest the election.
The general elections are due in December and the BNP will be on the backfoot because of this.
Unique
The subcontinent is unique as in Pakistan the prime minister Nawaz Sharif had to step down on allegations of corruption on orders of the Pak Supreme Court in 2017. The Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated in 1991 by a Tamil suicide bomber is also accused of taking cutbacks in the Bofors gun deal.
