Dhaka  - A court in Dhaka on Monday asked Bangladesh's former primer Khaleda Zia and a few of her ex-cabinet colleagues to appear in court by next Sunday in a graft case.

Accepting the charge sheet, pressed Sunday by an anti-corruption investigator against 15 others in a coalmine corruption case, the Metropolitan Session Judge, Mohammad Azizul Haq, also issued a warrant for the arrest of nine other officials of her 2001-2006 cabinet of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government.

Dhaka - Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was appointed chairwoman for life of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in a bid to protect her against moves by reformists to elect a new party leadership, officials said Sunday.

Tanvir Rahman Siddiqui, a member of BNP's policy-making standing committee, told a news briefing that Zia would remain party chief as long as she wished or her health permitted.

Dhaka  - Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia announced Thursday her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) would join the upcoming general election for the transition to democracy provided the military-backed interim regime could ensure a level playing field for all political parties.

"Certainly the BNP will contest the polls because we are a democratic organization," said Zia at a press briefing after she was released from a make-shift prison in the high security parliament complex in north Dhaka.

Dhaka  - Former Bangladeshi premier Khaleda Zia walked to freedom Thursday from a high security makeshift prison in the parliament complex in northern Dhaka, a senior prison official said.

Inspector General of Prisons Zakir Hasan said Zia was freed from her special cell after the courts delivered her release order.

Thousands of supporters of the ex-prime minister thronged the parliament building after news of her release spread.

Zia's release comes a year after she was arrested for graft and abuse of power during her second five-year term as prime minister leading a four-party alliance government which included her Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Dhaka , Sept 11 : Khaleda Zia, the former Bangladesh Prime Minister and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was today released on bail after a year''s detention in prison.

Zia was released as a part of an apparent deal between her and the military-backed interim government.

The BNP chairperson walked free from a makeshift jail in Parliament premises at about 11.45 A. M.

All the necessary papers for her release had reached the jail authorities last night.

Dhaka, Sept 5 : The former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who is languishing in a prison for over a year on graft charges, may be freed on bail by next week, claimed her lawyers.

A day after Zia’s elder son Tarique Rahman, who was being tried in a number of corruption charges was released, the Prothom Alo newspaper quoted one of Zia''''s counsels as saying, "We expect her to be released as she now needs bail from courts in only two cases."

However, a senior government leader said that she would have to go through legal procedures for her release.