Bangla cabinet scraps 28-year-old lease of Zia's house

DHAKA: Intensifying the rivalry between Bangladesh's 'battling begums', Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government has ordered the eviction of opposition BNP leader Khalida Zia from her residence terming the 28-year-old lease agreement as "illegal".

"The house was allocated to Khaleda Zia without a decision of the cabinet in 1981. The present cabinet believes that the lease is illegal," prime minister's press secretary Abul kalam Azad told PTI after the cabinet meeting.

The decision came a week after Hasina asked her arch-rival to return to the state her house at Dhaka cantonment saying "taking possession of a house illegally by a former prime minister, who is now the leader of the opposition, is not fair." "She (Zia) should return the house to the state. Why should she force us to take the possession of the house?" Hasina told parliament.

Azad said the lease was scrapped as the then president Hussain Muhammad Ershad had allocated her another posh house at uptown Gulshan area in 1981 while she was again offered a bigger house on area of 2.72 acres of land at the cantonment in 1982.

"Under the rules two houses cannot be allocated to one person," he said. Zia was allocated the houses after the assassination of her husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler turned civilian president, in an abortive 1981 coup.