Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Anisul Huq today remarked that the BNP kept courts in their pockets and turned justice into farce during their tenure.

The minister came up with the comment at the inauguration ceremony of a newly built four-storey Kasba Upazila Parsihad Bhaban in Brahmanbaria while replying to a query about BNP’s criticism of the recent verdict on an attack on Sheikh Hasina in 1994.

“On September 23, 1994, the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina came under attack on a train carrying her at Paksey station in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila. But police submitted a farcical final report the same year which was not accepted by the court,” he said, adding that the court has given its verdict 25 years after the incident on the basis of proper evidence to this case.

BNP is now making blithering comments on the verdict although the investigation in the case started during their tenure, he further said.

“BNP kept the courts in their pockets during their rule but now they are passing varieties of remarks against the rule of law,” Anisul said.

In the context of BNP’s comment on rule of law, the minister said that Khaleda Zia is in prison after the verdict of court but she is assisted by her house help Mosammat Fatema.

Such assistance is not allowed in jail by the rule of law, but nobody objected to this, he added.