Khaleda's Cantt House
'SQ Chy's remark seditious, provocative'
BNP leader SQ Chowdhury has stirred up controversy among politicians with his remark that the army should decide on the opposition leader's cantonment residence, even after the High Court has already ruled on the house.
''It's a sheer sedition ... SQ Chowdhury in his statement tried to give the army a separate entity, which is tantamount to rebellion,'' Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta, also chairman of parliamentary standing committee on law ministry, told a press conference yesterday.
Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, MP said the army is an ''integral part'' of the government yet Chowdhury tried to mislead the nation in a planned way.
''With such a provocative comment, he is also trying to create a face-to-face situation between the army and the judiciary.''
Chowdhury's comments intended to drag the army into a controversy, said Mahbubul Alam Hanif, AL joint secretary and prime minister's special assistant.
Jatiya Party Secretary General Ruhul Amin Hawladar, MP said he believed Chowdhury's ''audacious'' comments were merely his personal remarks and everyone should accept the verdict of the higher judiciary.
''None should make a comment which could endanger the smooth democratic process … the people of the country do not expect it from any sensible leader,'' said Jatiya Sramik League General Secretary Roy Ramesh Chandra.
SQ Chowdhury yesterday told newsmen that he thought the issue of Begum Khaleda Zia's cantonment residence was a ''matter of army'' and the military should be the appropriate authority to take a decision on the issue.
Asked if he thought Chowdhury's remarks on Begum Zia's cantonment house was a ''sensible one'', BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir declined to make any comment.
Begum Zia lost a legal battle in retaining her cantonment residence under a lease agreement, as the High Court earlier this month rejected her writ after hearings and asked her to vacate it within the next one month, validating a government order.
Khaleda's lawyer and Supreme Court Bar Association President Khondker Mahbub Hossain said he expected the government would reconsider its earlier decision to give back the house on ''humanitarian ground''. Return
But law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed said the government had no scope to be considerate about the matter as ''only paupers'' could deserve such compassion and ''this will be an unjust enrichment in legal terms''.
On April 8 last year, the cabinet cancelled the lease on grounds that the leasing process had been faulty and Khaleda violated lease terms with the subsequent notices saying she was carrying out political activities from the house located in a ''protected area''. Begum Zia filed the writ petition next month challenging the notice.
Sheikh Hasina earlier repeatedly urged Begum Zia to return to her state house.
''When I was the leader of the opposition, I was (even) barred from entering the cantonment with my vehicle to visit ailing writer Humayun Azad at Combined Military Hospital, then why will the present leader of the opposition live inside the cantonment and carried out political activities from there,'' Hasina earlier said.
The then government had allocated her another posh house at Gulshanin 1981, she was again offered the bigger house at the cantonment in 1982 after the assassination of her husband president Ziaur Rahman in an abortive coup in 1981.
The Rajuk Rules suggested that nobody would be entitled to a government plot if he or she obtained one earlier.
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