ISAS Briefs

After an 18-month roller coaster ride, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the two former Prime Ministers and heads of the two major political parties in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) respectively, have returned to the country’s political scene. The caretaker government that took over on 11 January 2007, with a strong military backing and an overwhelming support from the masses, has finally given up its “minus-two formula” and other political reform packages, realising the ineluctable reality that it is ultimately these two Begums who hold the key to lead (or mislead) the nation.