One may reconcile with her sons' tax evasions because of the way they were raised and the mother who raised them. But being a country's prime minister, Khaleda's tax evasion left me speechless although it's consistent with her all encompassing alleged illicit activities.

Another disgrace -- a twelve-time finance minister of BNP government who bypassed taxes for years also sheltered himself in NBR's tax amnesty gesture. What can we expect from an accountant -- one who was trained to find loopholes for tax -- academically untrained to be a country's finance minister -- now mortified by his sickening disease of greed?

A humiliating coincidence for them is that both of these highest profile tax evaders' sons are now in confinement -- waiting their days in court against corruption and extortion charges. Who were the accomplices to their sons' mischief?

Doesn't the NBR have track records of the prime minister and the finance minister if they owe taxes to the exchequer? Although it is far-fetched to think that the extension of legalising undisclosed money by NBR was premeditated to save these thick-skinned characters -- it nonetheless gives a perception to that effect.

Tax evasion is endemic worldwide. But there are no known cases of a country's prime minister and his/her finance minster ever using tax amnesty for hidden incomes. Perhaps Khaleda and Saiful didn't pay taxes because they assured themselves returning to power again?

Empirical studies estimate that the percentage share of the shadow economy in overall GDP runs well into double digits for OECD countries, while shares over one third can be reached in some transformation economies.

Reporting to the Senate in May, Deputy Finance Minister Vincenzo Visco said that the hidden, untaxed economy accounted for around 27 percent of Italy's GDP of nearly $2 trillion. Gian Maria Fara, president of Eurispes, a research institute said Italy's annual underground economy was equal to the combined GDP of Finland, Portugal, Romania and Hungary.

Many of us are of the view that NBR mustn't legalise undisclosed incomes of Khaleda and her sons who are being investigated for state corruptions and crimes. An appeal should be filed in higher courts challenging the legality of amnesty extended to an alleged corrupt family of mother and sons.

Tax evasion is a crime in almost all countries and subjects the guilty to fines and/or imprisonment -- in China the punishment is death.

In the US, persons subject to the Internal Revenue Code are required to report unlawful gains (gambling, theft, drug trafficking etc.) as income when filing annual tax returns, but hardly complied to avoid a pent-up admission of guilt.

By contrast, in the UK law enforcement agencies don't generally have access to tax returns and so illegal earnings can supposedly be safely declared. Here also persons involved in criminal activities generally prefer not to declare their illegal income to avoid possible prosecution for tax evasion.

Khaleda and Saifur may have escaped their times in prison for tax evasion crime -- but their criminality won't be washed away. Of them, Khaleda now wants to appear godly and distribute relief materials to the flood victims despite her party's ministers and MPs crowding the prisons for stealing relief materials during her last goverment. She seems to believe "no shame -- no politics."

My premonition is that before she is sterilised from all allegations of mischief, her free movement would give the perception of her receiving a favoured treatment and would bring an end to the belief that "no one is above the law" -- so articulately proclaimed by General Moeen Ahmed and Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed repeatedly.

The news that amid tight security Khaleda attended the "milad mahphil" commemorating the death anniversary of her detained son Tarique's father-in-law caught me by surprise. I was shocked that hundreds of people including some party leaders gathered there to have a glimpse of their beloved madam. Her party members who were present included her brother, Saeed Eskander -- also alleged to comprise the corrupt empire of Khaleda.

While the courting by her by her party "tabayders" is understandable but why would hundreds of people gather there?

Some people possibly wanted to see their former PM seemingly untainted herself from the foul smell of tax evasion. Some people may have gone there to see how she looks after all the derogatory yet well placed publicities about her past illicit activities. There are others who wanted to hear her about the state of dynastic politics. There may be others who wanted to hear when she would expel Mannan Bhuiyan and his followers from the party.

In my June 5 piece I argued that the phrase "the mother that rocks the cradle rules the world" may be amended in the context of Khaleda to read "the mother that rocked the cradle ruled a country and raised two criminal sons, and ruined a party along with the country. If Zia-ur-Rahman were reincarnated today, he'd possibly strip his name from Khaleda's, for all her alleged illicit activities."

After similar commentaries from all quarters and the numerous disclosures about her all-enveloping shenanigans, and lastly legalising hidden incomes, one naturally wonders what would convince BNP politickers to socially and politically isolate this woman. What keeps these people still courting appears to be guided by the adage "birds of a feather flock together." Unfortunately, these are the politicians and the people who will stand in the way of making the country relatively corruption free.

On the question of future corruption in Bangladesh, ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury in his August 10, Channel i talk show, referenced the ceremonious funeral of world's second most corrupt leader President Ferdinand Marcos accorded by the people of Philippines. A former prime minister of Singapore said that corruption cannot be eradicated from a country where the people give a ceremonies funeral to one of the most corrupt leaders of a country. Chairman Hasan ended his comments by saying that you may get the implications for Bangladesh from here.

Everyone at home and abroad is waiting to know if and when Khaleda is going to the sub-jail. On the other hand, she is slowly sneaking into more and more freedom and may possibly be getting the impression that she isn't the "sacrificial baqra" and that the "minus two formula" has become insuperable and too perilous for the government to execute.

So far her perception seems a possibility in the making. But to rest of us -- there is an impatient waiting and growing perception that charges delayed are crimes bypassed.

Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan is Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.