Tarique Rahman was elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP’s senior vice chairman for the second consecutive term on March 19, 2016. Three thousand councilors approved his position at the 6th National Council meeting of the party on March 19, 2016. He will be in charge for this position for the next three years, i.e. till 2019.

He was elected to the same post for the first time at the 5th National Council of the party on December 8, 2009.

Earlier in 2002 Tarique Rahman was made senior general secretary at a National Standing Committee meeting.

He joined the BNP as a primary member in 1988 in the Gabtali Upazilla unit in Bogra district.

Birth

Tarique Rahman is the elder son of late President Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and BNP Chairperson former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. He was born on November 20, 1965 in Bogra.

Education

He passed the Secondary School Certificate exam from Dhaka Residential Model College and Higher Secondary School examination from Notre Dame College. Tarique Rahman was admitted in the Department of Law of the University of Dhaka in 1984. Later he transferred to the Department of International Relations and completed his graduation in 1988.

Politics

Tarique Rahman’s political journey was started by enrolling as a primary member in the Gabtali Upzilla BNP unit in Bogra District in 1988. He campaigned across the country for the BNPduring 1991 general election as a young son of the founder and the chairperson of the party. His party won the election andformed the government. Subsequently he started to organize the party.

Tarique Rahman engaged with the grass root level political
process more deeply after the defeat of his party in the 1996 general election. He formed a central information and research cell at that time. He campaigned hard deploying his innovative ideas and plans and the BNP won a landslide victory in the 2001 general election.

Shortly after that he was made senior general secretary at a National Standing Committee meeting in 2002. Following this he started to strengthen the party in the at grass root level. He began contacting leaders, activists and supporters of the party at every level. He organized 23 ‘Grass-root Representative Meetings’ all across the country that created huge enthusiasm among the party’s activists and supporters. Local and global level political observers applauded his initiative.

At that time the Bogra district unit committee was formed through grass root level members’ competitive voting instead of selecting them from the center with a view to spread this democratic culture all over the country.  By implementing his plans and ideas successfully he emerged as a visionary leader for the party that helped him to become a self-made leader with enormous possibilities.

Arrest

Tarique Rahman was arrested from his Moinul Road resident at Dhaka Cantonment in the night of March 7, 2007 by the then illegal and self-declared government. He survived inhuman mental and physical torture in jail for 18 months. In the name of investigation, they tortured him in his legs and waist that ultimately made it difficult for him to move and walk freely.

Freedom

The “news” of Tarique Rahman’s suffering critical injuries by slipping and falling and hurting his feet on the floor in the jail spread fast across the country on August 25, 2007. Doubt and confusion arose over the veracity of the news. The notion was running high among the people that the news was circulated to hide the torture that the purported law enforcement agencies had caused him. This incident sparked instant protests in different parts of the country, including the universities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Shahjalal and Dhaka College, and Mymensingh Medical College.

Pressure mounted on the government from inside and outside and at last the then government had to set him free on September 3, 2008 after keeping him prison without charge for 18 months.

London life

Tarique Rahman left Dhaka for London on the night of his release from hospital for better treatment on September 11, 2008. He has been undergoing treatment at South Wellington Hospital and London Hospital since then.

Personal Life

Tarique Rahman is married to Dr. Zobaida Rahman, the youngest daughter of Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan, former Chief of the Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy.

Zobaida Rahman completed four years Masters Course in Cardiology at Imperial College of London achieving 83 percent marks that put her at the top her class.

Their only daughter Zaima Rahman studies law at a London university.