BNP chief Khaleda says lower courts in Bangladesh are just following government orders

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has alleged the two forms of justice are being delivered in Bangladesh because lower courts are simply going by the orders of the ruling regime.

The opposition leader accused the government of influencing the judiciary at an Iftar party in Dhaka on Wednesday.
 
“The judiciary is not free today. Even the chief justice said they were under control. The lower courts have to comply with the direction of the government,” she told the audience before Iftar.
 
“The government put the partisan judges at relevant offices. That is why the justice is now of two kinds.”
 
The former prime minister said people affiliated with the ruling Awami League secured pardon and bail despite committing crimes but things were different for those close to BNP and other parties. 
 
“They will have to face sentence without any guilt.”

The former prime minister called on the people to change the situation together.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance’s member National People’s Party organised the Iftar party.
 
Chief guest of the ceremony, Khaleda said the judges would have tried those filing false charges against political leaders and activists had the judiciary been independent.
 
She claimed police carried the ‘destructive activities’ during the alliance’s movement against the government and shifted the blame on its leaders.
 
She also said police themselves had said they exploded petrol bombs.
 
“They they set the buses ablaze, they set fire by their own admission.” With such crimes, she said, police saved the government from falling.
 

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at an Iftar party of ally National People's Party at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka Hotel.

More than 150 people were killed in violence, half of them in fire-bombings and arson attacks, amid the blockade and the shutdowns enforced by the BNP-led 20-Party alliance during the first three months of the year.

Khaleda labelled the government ‘illegal’ and said it remained in power only with the ‘force of police’.

She said the country was now a ‘police state’, not a ‘democratic state’.   

The BNP chief accused the government of her rival Sheikh Hasina of indulging in corruption and laundering money. 

“The government wants to kill the people by feeding them rotten imported wheat which is not even fit for cattle feed,” she said.

“People of the ruling party are involved with money-laundering but they are not arrested, or tried.”

She said, “I pray during the month of Ramadan that Allah punish them.”

Before the Iftar, Khaleda went around the hall and exchanged pleasantries with the guests.

Leaders of the alliance and other dignitaries joined the ceremony.