DHAKA: The main opposition BNP observed the first death anniversary of former Finance Minister and party’s standing committee member M Saifur Rahman through milad mehfil and discussion meeting Monday at the city’s Nayapaltan central office.

The veteran BNP leader died in a road accident on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway in Ashuganj on September 5 last year. However, his death anniversary was observed Sunday in Sylhet and elsewhere.

At the fag-end of his long political career, the longest-serving finance minister of Bangladesh sided with political reformers during the military-backed caretaker government’s tenure following the 1/11, 2007 changeover.

At one stage, while Khaleda Zia in jail, he took the charge of acting chairman of the new party committee that touted ‘minas-2’ formula targeted at canceling out the two alternately ruling dynasties.    

BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia expelled two other stalwart reformists--Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Ashraf Hossain--but did not take any action against Saifur Rahman.

BDST: 1025 HRS, SEPTEMBER 06, 2010