Cabinet cancels lease of Khaleda's cantt house

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Exactly a week after the prime minister spoke on the issue in parliament, the cabinet decided Wednesday to cancel the lease on 6 Mainul Road bungalow in Dhaka cantonment, given away to Khaleda Zia after the May 30, 1981 murder of her husband, army chief-turned-president Ziaur Rahman, reports bdnews24.com.
"Under the lease rules, two houses cannot be allotted to one person. Since one house (the cantonment mansion) was given away in 1981 and then another in 1982, (the cabinet) has decided to cancel one," Prime Minister's Office (PMO) spokesman Abul Kalam Azad told reporters Wednesday.
"Since Mrs Khaleda Zia was given a second house, on 1.5-bigha in Gulshan, it has been decided to cancel the allotment of the 9-bigha cantonment house," Azad said after a cabinet meeting.
The 2.72-acre mansion was originally the official home of the army chief, a position held by then Lt Gen Zia who then converted himself into a civilian head of state through martial law proclamations .
The cabinet decision came after days of clamour triggered by prime minister Shiekh Hasina's statement in parliament last week that she would ask the slain general's wife to vacate the house and that blocks of apartments would be built in the prime land for families of army officers killed in the Feb mutiny.
"Why should you, being a political leader, live in the cantonment? You were allotted another house on one-and-a-half-bigha land in Gulshan, why will you keep the army land?" Hasina said, speaking in parliament on April 1.
Hasina had also announced that her younger sister Sheikh Rehana would hand to the slain BDR officers' families the one-bigha land in Dhanmondi which she was allotted in 2001.
"We will construct apartments there for some of the families of the martyred army officers," Hasina declared.
The 2001-06 BNP-led coalition government, immediately after taking over, cancelled the land allocation for Rehana and established Dhanmondi Police Station there.
The Leader of the House said the government would build apartments on the 2.72-acre land of Khaleda and allocate two apartments to each of the families of army officers slain in the BDR mutiny, should the opposition leader return the house.
Each of the family can live in one flat and rent the other. Khaleda should give the house to the officers' families, Hasina added.
Khasru told the prime minister that the house was leased out to Khaleda for 99 years with some conditions including restrictions on political activities in the house.
But, Khasru added, Khaleda breached the terms by carrying out political activities at the house, and the head office of Dandy Dyeing was set up there.
The AL MP wanted to know whether the government would cancel the lease on breach of conditions.
Hasina said the cantonment authorities cannot allocate the house to Khaleda, but they did so violating laws.
Khaleda's family mortgaged the house to bank for loan in violation of the lease condition, she added.
To a query of Jatiya Party MP Hafizuddin Ahmed, the prime minister said it was former president HM Ershad who was responsible for allocation of the Mainul Road house to Khaleda.