Dhaka - Bangladesh's mainstream opposition leader Khaleda
Zia Saturday asked her arch political rival Sheikh Hasina Wazed's
four-month-old government to quit over failure in 'curbing terrorism
and easing the power and water crisis.'
'Relinquish power as there is still time, don't compel the people
to drive you away. You have miserably failed to deliver in the last
four months,' Zia, also a former prime minister, said while
addressing a huge gathering at Dhaka's Paltan Ground to mark the May
Day.
It was Zia's first addressing of a public meeting since Hasina's
Awami League-led coalition assumed office with an overwhelming
majority in parliament in early January.
Zia blasted Hasina for, among other things, failing to provide
people with an adequate power and water supply.
She also accused the ruling party of gross politicisation of the
administration and of telling lies against her Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP)-led government between 2001 and 2006.
Hasina, who addressed a similar rally Friday, accused the BNP
government of indulging in corruption and swallowing most of the
budgets allocated for electricity generation, resulting in the
present crisis.
She also claimed that the families of then prime minister Zia
siphoned off millions of dollars earned out of shady deals, which the
present government would investigate.
At Saturday's rally Zia challenged the prime minister's claims
saying, 'If you (Hasina) have the courage, you have to prove the
corruption during our regime.'
She blamed the former army-backed interim administration, which
put her behind bars after taking over amid political chaos in early
2007, for deliberately filing false cases against her party leaders
and family members.
Zia's BNP party faced a debacle in the last general elections,
obtaining only 29 seats in the 300-strong parliament while her rival
Hasina bagged 230 parliamentary seats. Hasina was also detained by
the military-backed government on graft charges.
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