Hearing of Khaleda's challenge adjourned till today

The High Court yesterday adjourned till 2:00pm today the hearing on two seven-year-old writ petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging the legality of Niko and Gatco corruption cases.
During proceedings yesterday, Khaleda's lawyers Ragib Rauf Chowdhury and AKM Ehsanul Karim placed the charge sheet of the Niko case and the first information report of the Gatco case before the HC.
The Anti-Corruption 

Commission filed the Niko graft case on December 9, 2007. The commission accused Khaleda and four others of abusing power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when the BNP chairperson was the prime minister.

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Following a writ petition filed by Khaleda, the HC on July 9, 2008 stayed the case proceedings and issued a rule upon the ACC and the government to explain why the proceedings of the case against her should not be declared illegal.

The commission filed the Gatco graft case against the BNP chief and 12 others on September 2, 2007 on charges of corruption in awarding Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Co Ltd (Gatco) a contract for container management at inland container depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The graft caused the state exchequer a loss of over Tk 1,000 crore.

Following another petition, the court on July 15, 2008 stayed the proceedings of the case against her and issued another rule upon the government and anti-graft watchdog to explain why the proceedings should not be quashed.