Padma bridge opening: No legal bar to inviting Khaleda

There is no legal bar to inviting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to Padma Bridge's inaugural ceremony, Law Minister Anisul Huq said yesterday.

"There are two conditions that Khaleda Zia's release came with -- she will receive treatment inside Bangladesh and she cannot go abroad. There is no legal bar to inviting her at the programme to be held on the occasion of the Padma Bridge opening."

He was talking to reporters after a meeting to inaugurate the 146th refresher course for chief judicial magistrates and chief metropolitan magistrates at the Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI) in Dhaka.

Quoting Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Anisul said the government will be inviting Khaleda to the opening ceremony.

The law minister said he also informed Quader yesterday that there was no legal bar in this regard.

Earlier on Saturday, Quader, also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League, told reporters that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia would be invited "if the relevant law permits".

Anisul yesterday told reporters that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government does not take action against anybody out of vengeance.

The investigations into the corruption cases filed against Khaleda and her sons, during the caretaker government regime in 2007, were completed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the trial proceedings were finished in line with the law, he said, adding that blaming the AL for the cases and trial proceedings is baseless.

Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, director general of JATI, presided over the meeting where Md Golam Sarwar, secretary of the law and justice division, also spoke.