staff correspondent

Former foreign minister M Morshed Khan yesterday tendered his resignation to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, citing personal grounds.

Morshed, vice-chairman of the BNP, sent the resignation letter to party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir through a messenger.

“In life, a person sometimes has to make a difficult decision, which has far- reaching impact. In my consideration, that moment is currently present and [it is] perfect too,” he said in the letter.

“You [Khaleda] are aware that my involvement in politics has been for a long time… at present my firm belief is that I have no ability to add something new to the country’s politics and the advancement of the party,” he said.

The letter also reads, “Considering my personal grounds only, my realisation is that this is the high time to retire from active politics. After much deliberation, I, therefore, have decided to go into retirement from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party from today.”

“Under these circumstances and as a normal procedure, I resign from my party’s present vice-chairman post and withdraw my primary membership of the party. It is my earnest request that you will oblige me in the light of my resignation letter under special consideration through relieving me of the aforementioned posts,” it said.

At the end of the letter, the former foreign minister wished the BNP chief a good future and hoped she would overcome her present hardship.

Contacted, Morshed told that he had submitted his resignation letter. “I will not say anything more. Everything is in my letter.”

Born in Chattogram on August 8, 1940, Morshed’s political career started with the Jatiya Party, where he was the treasurer. He became a JP lawmaker in 1986.

When the BNP was in power from 1991 to 1996, Morshed left the JP and joined the BNP. During that time, he was made a special envoy to then prime minister Khaleda Zia.

Subsequently, he became a member of the advisory council and vice-chairman of the party.

Morshed was elected in the 6th, 7th and 8th parliamentary elections with BNP tickets from Chattogram.

He became the foreign minister after he was elected in the 8th national election held in 2001.

In 2008, Morshed could not contest the parliamentary polls as he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for amassing Tk 1.7 crore wealth illegally and concealing information about wealth worth Tk 91.34 lakh in his wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

In the last parliamentary election, he did not get party nomination to contest the election.

He is now facing several cases.