Dhaka. After the death of former Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia, her son Tariq Rahman has taken charge of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The Standing Committee of BNP has approved the appointment of Tariq Rehman as the chairman of the party. According to media reports, this decision was taken in a meeting held at the party’s Gulshan office on Friday night. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir confirmed this after the meeting. In the meeting, all the committee members unanimously elected Tariq Rahman as BNP President. After everyone’s consent, Tariq Rehman took over the post of president as per the BNP constitution.
According to sources, Rehman had participated in street protests with his mother during the anti-Ershad movement. Dhaka Tribune reported that Tariq had joined the party as an ordinary member of Gabtali upazila unit in 1988. Before the 1991 general elections, he campaigned with his mother Jiya in every district of the country. In 1993, Tariq Rahman organized a conference of the Bogura district unit of the BNP, where the party leadership of the area was elected by secret ballot. He then encouraged other district units to adopt the democratic process in electing their leaders.
In 2002, the BNP Standing Committee named Tariq Rahman as Senior Joint Secretary. In 2005 he held grassroots conferences across the country and consulted with the BNP unit in every upazila of Bangladesh. He was arrested during the One-Eleven period in 2007 and later sent abroad for medical treatment, after which he remained in exile since 2008. He returned to Bangladesh after 17 years on December 25, 2025.
Earlier in 2009, he was elected Senior Vice President of BNP. However, in 2018, when Begum Khaleda Zia was jailed, Tariq Rehman was made the acting president of the party. After this, after the death of Khaleda Zia, the party has appointed Tariq Rehman as the President of BNP.
