BANGLADESH HIGH COURT DEFERS JUDGEMENT ON ZIA'S BAIL PETITION

Bangladesh's High Court on Sunday deferred the judgement on imprisoned exprime minister and main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia's bail petition, saying it would decide after receiving necessary papers from the lower court which sentenced her to five years in jail this month.

The 72-year-old three-time former prime minister was given a five-year jail term by Dhaka's Special Court on February 8 in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician. "The (two-judge) bench said it would issue the order on the bail petition after receiving the case documents from the trial court" which is expected to reach the High Court in the next two weeks, a high court official told reporters.

The February 8 verdict shook the country's political scenario ahead of the general elections scheduled to be held by the end of the year.

The BNP, the main opposition party outside Parliament, alleged that the verdict was politically motivated to debar Zia from contesting elections, an allegation denied by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government.

The High Court had earlier this week accepted for hearing her bail petition along with prayers, challenging her conviction and ordered authorities concerned to forward the case records in 15 days. Political analysts say the BNP is now exposed to a political wilderness after Zia's conviction, which is likely to disqualify her for elections unless she could obtain a different direction from the Supreme Court. Zia, however, appears to be seeking to contest the next polls. BNP's secretary general Mirza Falhrul Islam Alamgir earlier last week told a protest rally that the party would not take part in polls discarding Zia and "no national election will be held without BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia".