BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's release will be revoked if she participates in political programs, said Law Minister Anisul Huq.
“Khaleda Zia cannot participate in polls. She has to complete her jail sentence once her health improves,” he said at an event held at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Sunday.
Anisul Haque also said: “Article 66 of the Constitution states that if a person has been sentenced for more than two years for moral turpitude, then he/she cannot stand for election.”
Jamaat, an unregistered political party, got permission to hold a rally on Saturday after almost 10 years. In response to a question from journalists in this regard, the law minister said: “Only the Ministry of Home Affairs can say why they were allowed to hold a rally despite not being registered as a political party.”
Regarding holding a dialogue with the opposition BNP, the law minister said that the government has no plans to do it. “Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said it.”
Besides, the minister said, addressing BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir: “Mirza Fakhrul said – many of their leaders and activists have been accused in cases to harass them, including the ones who have died. I want to say – they are prosecuted for committing a crime; it is not harassment.”
Later, while talking about the new US visa policy, the minister said that the government is not too concerned about it.
“Whoever it is for, it is insulting for us (government). The last two elections were fair, free and impartial,” he added.
Khaleda Zia spent some time in Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018.
Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, on conditions that she would stay at her Gulshan house, and would not leave the country.
The BNP chief was admitted to Evercare Hospital several times after she had tested positive for Covid-19 in April 2021.
Khaleda's family submitted several applications to the government seeking permission to send her to an advanced centre abroad for the treatment of her multiple health complications, but the government has rejected it every time as she was convicted of corruption by the court in two cases.