Tarique Rahman stepped off a plane in Dhaka last week to thousands of supporters waiting in the streets. For nearly 17 years, the eldest son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had lived in London, watching his country's politics from abroad. His return marks a turning point for Bangladesh's largest opposition party—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)—as the country navigates one of its most uncertain political moments in decades.
Rahman left Bangladesh in 2007 after being charged with 84 counts of illegal activity, including corruption and money laundering, during the Sheikh Hasina government. He was released for medical treatment abroad and never returned—until now. His absence spanned the entire tenure of the Awami League government, which collapsed in July 2024 after weeks of mass protests and violence. That upheaval created a vacuum in Bangladesh's political landscape.
A party searching for direction
The BNP has been Bangladesh's main opposition force for decades, but it lost its figurehead when Khaleda Zia died in December 2022. Rahman's homecoming arrives at a moment when the party needs to prove it can offer more than nostalgia or resistance. An interim government is currently in place, but it's struggling to restore stability. Violence against religious minorities, women, and political dissenters has surged. The country feels unmoored.
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Start Your News DetoxRahman has framed his return around a plan rather than a dream—a deliberate reference to Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech, but one that signals pragmatism over rhetoric. He's talked about accelerating development, serving ordinary citizens, and rebuilding democratic institutions. Whether he can actually unite a deeply fractured society around those goals is the question Bangladesh is now asking.
The path forward is complicated. The BNP may need to work with Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party it has had a tense relationship with for years. National elections are scheduled for February 12. There's also the matter of whether Rahman's return energizes the BNP's base or simply reminds people of the party's internal divisions and the legal charges still hanging over him.
For Bangladesh, Rahman's homecoming is less about one man's journey and more about whether the country can move past cycles of political crisis toward something more stable. The next few months will tell whether his return becomes a catalyst for that shift or just another chapter in an ongoing struggle.
