By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
The Bangladesh high court (HC) yesterday started hearing of four separate petitions of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, challenging the legality of Gatco and Niko graft cases as well as seeking quashing of Barapukuria
graft case filed against her.
An HC bench comprising Justice Md Nuruzzaman and Justice Zafar Ahmed heard the appeals and fixed April 22 for the next hearing.
Lawyer Badruddoza Badal appeared for Zia during the hearing.
Among the four appeals, two were lodged challenging the legality of Gatco graft case and against the inclusion of the case under the Emergency Power Rules.
Another appeal also challenged the legality of Niko graft case while the rest was for dismissing the Barapukuria
graft case.
On April 7, Chief Justice SK Sinha formed the bench for hearing the four cases after the HC bench comprising Justice Moinul Islam and Justice JBM Hassan, which was hearing the Barapukuria graft case, sent the case to the chief justice on April 5.
The move by the HC bench of Justice Moinul Islam and Justice JBM Hasan came following the filing of appeal by Zia to seeking transfer of the cases from the bench.
On March 11, the BNP chief submitted the no-confidence application to the chief justice, saying she might not get proper justice from the bench of Justice Moinul Islam and Justice JBM Hassan as one of the lawyers of the bench took part in the Supreme Court Bar election under the ruling party banner.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on December 9, 2007 filed the Niko graft case against Zia and four others in connection with a 1.37bn taka loss of the national exchequer caused by the signing of an oil-gas exploration agreement with Niko during the previous BNP regime.
On May 5, 2008, it submitted charges against 11 persons.
On September 2, 2007, the ACC filed the graft case against Zia and 12 others for causing a loss of 1.45bn taka to the national exchequer by allegedly awarding the contract of container handling at the Chittagong port and Dhaka’s inland container depot to Gatco.
Zia on September 27, 2007 filed a petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the inclusion of the case under the Emergency Rule Act and seeking a stay order on the trial’s proceedings.
In 2008, an HC bench issued a rule and stayed the trial’s proceedings after hearing a
petition by Zia.
In 2008, the proceedings of the graft case was stayed again as Zia filed another petition challenging the legality of the case filed under the ACC Act.
During a state of emergency in 2008, the ACC filed the case accusing Zia and others, including 10 former cabinet members.
According to the case statement, the government incurred a loss of 1.59bn taka on the Barapukuria Coalmine deal awarded to the second highest bidder CMC instead of the lowest one.
Khaleda Zia
