Tareq Rahman

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Tarique Rahman also known as Tareq Zia is a Bangladeshi politician and is currently under custody facing charges of corruption. He is Senior Joint Secretary-General of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Mr. Rahman is a politician from the northern district of Bogra. His mother is Khaleda Zia, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the Chairperson of BNP. Tarique Rahman's father is the late President Ziaur Rahman. His principal responsibility was in the Party is to reorganize the Party to meet the challenges of the 21st century. He is specially assigned for rejuvenating Party’s student front.

1 Political career
2 Criticism
3 Rahman's arrest
4 References

[edit] Political career

Tarique is the youngest leader to become Joint Secretary-General of BNP. He was elevated to this position in June 2002, in response to rising demand from ranks and files of the Party, in recognition of his contribution in last general election, which brought a landslide victory. Tarique identified the challenges for BNP and planned its strategies and tactics to cope with the situation. In 1998, he established a research cell for the party and drew in the expertise of academics, professionals and business entrepreneurs along with the experiences, of politicians to plan for the future of the party.

After completing Bachelor degree in 1988, he was able to establish a competitive edge in the textiles industry and in the river transport sector. However, his passion has remained in politics, being inspired by the ideals of his father as well as his mother. It was his father Ziaur Rahman, whose declaration of Independence in March 1971, following the genocide, inspired the people for the liberation war. On 7th November 1975 Ziaur Rahman once again captured the imagination of the people, when he was freed from captivity through a mass upsurge defeating the traitors and agents of foreign power. Ziaur Rahman re-introduced popular democracy, multi-party system, free press and open market policy. He was extremely popular and was elected President of the country in 1978. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1981.

Tarique was only a teen-ager when his father was assassinated. But he was matured enough to understand the significance of what his father had tried to achieve. He is deeply committed to safeguard sovereignty and promote development of Bangladesh. He is in favour of promoting investments for industrialization and development of the service as well as Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector that will result in creation of employment opportunities. He believes in the expanding country’s private sector, establishing an efficient and dynamic administration.

Tarique accompanied his mother BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, during the election campaign in 1991. She was the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh and has been elected to this post thrice. Tarek worked closely for the Party during the general election campaign in 1996. Since then he has been involved intensively in his home district, Bogra, to institutionalize a democratic culture in the Party. His efforts, commonly known as the `Bogra Model’, which has become very popular among the root level party workers, have resulted in a system of electing Party leadership from the grassroots. As the Joint Secretary General-1 he is now encouraging implementation of this Model through out the country.

Tarique Rahman married to Dr. Zubaida Rahman is a physician working as government servant. His daughter Zaima is thirteen years old.

[edit] Criticism

At the age of 42 Tareq made his first significant step in politics in 2002, when ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party was announced that he had been promoted to a senior position. Mr Rahman rapidly acquired a reputation for being a "hatchet man" for enforcing party discipline. Mr. Rahman appears to prefer working behind the scenes. His private office "Hawa Bhavan" was widely viewed by political opponent Awami League as the driver of the country's mismanagement and corruption during 2001 to 2006 while his mother Khaleda Zia was the Prime Minister. He rarely speaks to the press, and is renowned for his reticence in the few media interviews he has given.

[edit] Rahman's arrest

Under the present care taker government on March 7, 2007, Tarique Rahman was arrested by law enforcing Joint Forces. He is charged with extortion and other corruptions. He initially denied the charges. But later the situation turned dramatically when other arrested BNP political leaders started to disclose information on Tarique Rahman’s corruption. Especially the arrest of former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar on May 29, 2007 brought a huge downfall of Tarique’s public image. Mr. Babar provided evidence of Tarique Rahman’s corruption. But trail has not started for these charges yet. Khaleda Zia claimed in the court that her sons had not committed any crime as they did not need money.

On the other hand, Tarique complained to the court that physical tortures were carried out on him in remand on December 31 of 2007. Tarique said, "I'm in politics for a long time. For that I went to many places of the country. I helped many orphans, poor and helpless people. I distributed cows and goat among these people. I arranged the weddings of many poor girls. I also arranged treatment of many people. I'm a politician, not a terrorist. I'm concerned about the safety of my life." Tarique Rahman is the victim of conspiracy and was arrested only to keep him aloof from politics," said the panel of lawyers.