Staff Correspondent

The detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina felt sick in jail and could not appear in court on Wednesday to face the hearing in the framing of charges against her in the barge-mounted power plant case.

Hasina's counsels, however, moved a petition seeking her bail saying that the case should be dismissed as the High Court on February 6 declared illegal the trial of any offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency under the Emergency Powers Rules.

M Firoz Alam, the judge of the special judge's court 1 of Dhaka set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, posted for February 19 the ruling on the petition and hearing arguments on the framing of charges.

As the court resumed in the morning, the judge told the court about the illness of Hasina, also the Awami League president, quoting medical report submitted by the jail authorities. Former energy secretary Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, accused in the case and detained in jail, was in the dock.

'Her physical condition is not good enough to attend court… Her blood pressure is fluctuating,' the medical report said. At the news of Hasina's illness, her counsel Shafique Ahmed filed an application seeking her bail in view of the changed scenario after the February 6 High Court judgment.

Hasina's counsels argued the trial in the case should not continue after the High Court's verdict delivered on February 6. In the verdict, the High Court declared illegal trial under the emergency rules in any case involving an offence committed before the declaration of the emergency and the power plant graft case had also been placed under the emergency rules, argued the counsels.

The High Court on November 4, 2007 halted the proceedings of the graft case and granted bail to Hasina. It also issued a rule on the Anti-Corruption Commission and the government to explain the legality of placing the case under the emergency rules, they said, contending that Hasina should now be released immediately on bail.

The court said the Appellate Division had already stayed the execution of the High Court order and the rule was yet to be heard in the High Court. The defence counsels also argued Hasina should be granted bail for her proper medical treatment as she is ill.

Opposing the bail petition, the chief public prosecutor, Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan Mukul, told the court that the Appellate Division on November 26, 2007 had stayed the execution of the High Court order and asked the parties to get expeditious disposal of the in the High Court.

'This court now cannot deal with the bail petition as the matter is still pending with the High Court,' he said. On September 2, 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission's deputy director Sabbir Hasan lodged the case with the Tejgaon police accusing Hasina and seven others of helping a foreign company and its local partners to win a deal for the installation of the 100MW barge-mounted power plant in Khulna, which denied the lowest bidder the award of the deal.

Three companies allegedly paid the bribe after winning the work order for the installation of the barge-mounted power plant in which the lowest bidder was deprived.

The amount was spent on buying a house at Dhanmondi for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust, according to the charge sheet. The Wartsila Power Development Ltd Consortium and its local partners, Summit Group and United Group, won the deal when Hasina was prime minister.

Incidentally, February 19 is also the last date set by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the February 6 High Court verdict that quashed Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against Hasina under the emergency rules.

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