Sources: The Financial Express (Dhaka) and Bangladesh public holidays (qppstudio.net). Following the Awami League's (AL) recent victory in getting the Bangladesh High Court to force the government to restore the August 15 public holiday commemorating the death of Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (our post of July 27, 2008), the AL's erstwhile foe, the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) has in turn petitioned the current caretaker government to restore the BNP November 7 trademark public holiday which was cancelled last year (our post of November 29, 2007).In addition, the BNP also requested the current caretaker government to declared May 30 an annual public holiday to commemorate the date on which the party's founder and former president, Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981.
Recall that the 2 main competing political parties, since Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, have been the AL and the BNP, whose founders were both assassinated. Thus, since the 1970's, when the AL comes to power, the November 7 public holiday is replaced by the August 15 public holiday, and vice-versa when the BNP was in power. However, since the inconclusive elections of 2006, a transitional caretaker government is at the helm and trying to please all sides (or at least displease no one), not an easy feat in Bangladesh.
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