Dhaka, Dec 13 Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on December 25, local media reported on Saturday.
The announcement was made on Friday during a press conference at the party's headquarters in Gulshan. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the party would formally receive and welcome Rahman upon his arrival in the capital.
Tarique Rahman was arrested in 2007 during the political upheaval linked to the 1/11 period. After being released from prison in 2008, he travelled to the United Kingdom along with his family for medical treatment and has remained there ever since.
Following the July uprising that led to the fall of the democratically elected Awami League government on August 5 last year, several court verdicts that had sentenced Tarique Rahman in different cases were overturned.
In some other cases, he was acquitted through legal proceedings.
His mother, BNP chief Khaleda Zia, is also not in good health.
His planned return comes at a time when the Election Commission (EC) has announced that the country's 13th national parliamentary election, along with a referendum on the July Charter, will be held on February 12 next year.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) A.M.M. Nasir Uddin made the announcement in a pre-recorded address broadcast on state-owned Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar on December 11.
According to the announced election schedule, December 29 has been set as the last date for submitting nomination papers. The scrutiny of nominations will take place from December 30 to January 4.
The deadline for the withdrawal of candidatures is January 26, while the election campaign is scheduled to begin on January 22, Bangladeshi media outlet UNB reported.
Bangladesh is set to hold the February 2026 national election alongside a referendum for the first time in the country's electoral history.
Last month, the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus instructed the Election Commission to organise the referendum on the same day as the February 2026 polls, EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed confirmed.
"The Cabinet Division sent the letter to the commission, directing it to begin necessary preparations for holding a referendum," an EC official was quoted as saying by leading Bangladeshi newspaper The Business Standard.
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