SC bar for out-of-court settlement

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yesterday demanded that the government immediately go for an out-of-court settlement over the issue of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's cantonment house.
Describing the issue sensitive, the SCBA threatened to wage a movement to oust the government if the demand is not met.
“The court is a sensitive place and so is the field of politics. The government should not take politics to the court. It should consider the matter politically and settle it outside the court,” said SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain at a press conference at his office yesterday morning.
Replying to a question Khandker Mahbub said the matter can be resolved easily if the government cancels its notice.
On April 8 last year, the government cancelled the allotment of the house citing a number of anomalies regarding the allotment within the military zone and issued a notice to former prime minister Khaleda Zia on April 20 asking her to vacate the house in 15 days.
After receiving the notice, Khaleda Zia filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the government notice.
The HC on October 10 this year declared the notice valid and asked the government to give Khaleda one month's time for leaving her Dhaka Canotnment house.
An appeal will be filed with the Supreme Court against the HC verdict, said Khandker Mahbub.
“The decision to force Khlaeda leave the house is unethical. The house carries the memory of late president Ziaur Rahman,” the SCBA president noted.
In 1981, the then president Justice Abdus Sattar allotted the house on 165 kathas of land to Khaleda on a lease deed for one taka allegedly in violation of constitutional provisions and laws.
Before giving the cantonment house, that government had allocated Khaleda and her two sons 1.5 bighas of land in the city's Gulshan, and gave them Tk 10 lakh and other facilities.