After spending a month in Bangladesh, Zubaida Rahman has departed for London to reunite with her husband, BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, and their daughter, Jaima Rahman, to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha. She left Dhaka on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. on a Qatar Airways flight.
Zubaida Rahman had returned to Bangladesh on May 6, marking her first visit in 17 years. She left the country with her husband on September 11, 2008, and has since been residing in London with their daughter.
In 2008, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case against Tarique Rahman, Zubaida Rahman, and Iqbal Mand Banu on charges of amassing wealth beyond known sources of income.
In that case, Zubaida Rahman was sentenced by a Dhaka court to three years in prison and fined 3.5 million taka. The sentence was later suspended following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government amid a mass student-led uprising.
An accomplished physician, Zubaida Rahman earned her MBBS from Dhaka Medical College and completed an MSc in Medicine at Imperial College London.
She began her career in public health in 1995 after ranking first in the BCS (Health) examination.
In 2008, she took study leave to accompany her husband for medical treatment in London but was eventually dismissed from government service for failing to return after her leave extension expired.
Born in Sylhet, Zubaida Rahman is the daughter of the late Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali, who served as Chief of Naval Staff under President Ziaur Rahman and later held ministerial positions during the government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. She is also the niece of General M.A.G. Osmani, the Commander-in-Chief of Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
