Bangladesh Nationalist Party

                           Bangladesh Nationalist Party

Bangladesh Nationalist Party

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (transliterated: Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Dol ) often abbreviated as BNP, is one of the two the largest political parties of Bangladesh. The BNP was founded as a center right liberal democratic party. It was established on September 1, 1978 during the regime of Ziaur Rahman. It has ruled Bangladesh for a total of 14 years and three terms since its birth (1978–1982, 1991–1996, and 2001–2006). During the early 1990, the BNP administration, with stalwarts such as Saifur Rahman, oversaw a landmark liberalization of the Bangladeshi economy, which set aprecedent for economic reforms across South Asia. The BNP has been led by Khaleda Zia since 1983. The student wing of the party is the Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal.

 1991 the party had won 140 seats, only 11 short of a majority. Begum Khaleda Zia was sworn in as the first woman Prime MInister of Bangladesh. In the February election of 1996 Khaleda Zia became Prime minister for another term, winning 300 seats out of 300. Fresh elections were held in June and BNP had introduced the caretaker government system for neutral elections. In the election of 2001 BNP won 193 seats and came to power for the fourth time.

History :  BNP was founded on 1 September 1978. President Ziaur Rahman had founded the party when he was elected as president. After his assassination, Abdus Sattar was elected as the president. Sattar was ousted from the party and Begum Khaleda Zia was elected as the chairperson of the party. Army General Hussain Muhammad Ershad declared martial law in the country. In the Bangladeshi General Election ,

2001–2006 periods : BNP won the general election in 2001 with a two-thirds majority of seats in parliament, and 46% of the vote compared to the principal opposition party's 40% returning to power for a third term

Caretaker Government 2006–2008 : President Iajuddin Ahmed (in office since 2002) declared a state of emergency before resigning as Chief Advisor; Fakhruddin Ahmed, a prominent banker, was appointed as CA. The military-backed government promised to tackle the longstanding problems of corruption, filing charges against more than 160 politicians, civil servants and businessmen in 2007. Among those charged were Khaleda Zia and her two sons , as well as Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League. Some party members chose former finance minister Saifur Rahman as chairman, and former water resources minister Hafizuddin Ahmed as secretary general to lead the party. Khaleda Zia's supporters refused to recognize these choices. The Bangladesh Election Commission invited Hafizuddin's faction, rather than Khaleda Zia's, to participate in talks, effectively recognizing the former as the legitimate BNP. Khaleda Zia challenged this in court, but her appeal was rejected on 10 April 2008. After her release later that year, Zia was restored to her position as party leader. There is speculation that the military government was trying to force both major leaders into exile in order to change the political system. In the 2008 Bangladesh general election, the 4-party alliance led by BNP won 32 seats out of 299 constituencies, of which the BNP alone got 29.

 5th National Council : After sanctions by the Election Commission, the party held country-wide events in order for local leaders to play an active role in the national party. The BNP National Council empowered re-elected party chairperson Khaleda Zia to pick other members for the National Executive Committee and Standing Committee. It elected her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, to the powerful post as Senior Vice-Chairman , in a "move apparently designed to smooth his path to the party helm

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Collected from Wikipedia . Information link Wikipedia

Bangladesh Political Review