Wife moves to strip ex-B'desh ruler of party post

DHAKA, June 26 (Reuters) The wife of former Bangladesh military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad declared today that she had taken control of his Jatiya Party, a day after former loyalists moved to clip the wings of a former premier.

Rowshan Ershad, the ex-strongman's political number two, told a hurriedly called news conference that ''from now on I am the acting head of the Jatiya Party''.

''Ershad is no longer its chief,'' she said. ''One man cannot run the party for ever and the time has come to end his absolute authority over the party.'' Jatiya is the country's third biggest party after the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led respectively by former premiers Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia.

Ershad told a separate news briefing he remained at the party helm and vowed: ''I will expel her from the party for gross indiscipline and disobedience''.

Rowshan, twice estranged from Ershad but reunited with him after his nine-year rule ended in 1990, said today she had the support of a majority of Jatiya party seniors and policy makers.

Ershad's followers hit back, saying the ''equation will change in a while and the reins will remain with Ershad''.

Yesterday, a panel of BNP reformists led by secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan unveiled a 15-point plan to curb Khaleda's autocratic control over the party.

They proposed that no one should remain party chief for more than two three-year terms, nor serve as prime minister more than twice, and no one should hold the two positions simultaneously.

Khaleda, whose second term as prime minister ended last October, vowed to challenge the plan at a party convention.

Emerging reformists in Hasina's Awami League, meanwhile, said they would unveil their own reform agenda soon, aimed at curtailing her imperious party rule.

Khaleda and Hasina jointly led a popular uprising in December 1990 that toppled Ershad, nine years after he had seized power in a bloodless coup. They then alternated as prime minister for the next 15 years, becoming bitter and uncompromising rivals.

Now the army-backed interim government is targeting the formidable pair in its crackdown on political corruption.

Khaleda's elder son and political heir is in detention, along with more than 170 key political figures facing charges of graft and abuse of power.

Hasina stands accused of personal dishonesty and of promoting wrongdoing by others during her 1996-2001 rule.

While both women deny the charges, dissenters in their parties have come out strongly in favour of reform and, especially, of clipping the wings of Hasina and Khaleda.

The interim authority which imposed emergency rule in January amid widespread turmoil cancelled an election due that month. It says new polls will be held around the end of next year but only after completing its political reforms and anti-corruption drive.

REUTERS AK RN1918