Khaleda to appear before court today

IANS/DhakaBangladesh’s former prime minister Khaleda Zia will appear before a court in Dhaka today in a case filed by the country’s anti-graft body.Khaleda Zia will seek bail in the case filed for allegedly awarding a contract to a foreign firm, causing huge loss to the exchequer, Xinhua quoted a counsel for the opposition leader as saying yesterday.Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission filed the Niko graft case in 2007 after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief was arrested by the then military-backed caretaker government.A total of 11 people, including Khaleda Zia, former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy A K M Mosharraf Hossain, were charged on May 5, 2008 for allegedly causing a loss of $1.76bn to the exchequer by awarding gas exploration job to a Canadian company, Niko Resources, Xinhua reported.Zia had earlier said political vendetta was to blame for the cases against her and her sons.