Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal today said the government has still not received any appeal for the release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on parole.

"It's a matter of the court," the minister further said, according to UNB.

He made the comments after attending a branch opening ceremony of Sydney International School in Gulshan.

Meanwhile, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said the home minister will decide whether Khaleda's release on parole is logical or not.

"I discussed the matter with the home minister yesterday. But I learned yesterday, the party has not appealed for her release yet," he told reporters at his ministry office this noon.

Khaleda's lawyer Advocate Zainul Abedin told UNB that they will file a bail petition again this week seeking her release.

Pointing to section 401(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Khaleda's advocate said the government can suspend jail term of such convicts under special consideration.

The section says: "When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the government may at any time without conditions or upon any condition which the person sentenced excepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced."

BNP leaders and activists yesterday demonstrated in front of the party's Nayapaltan central office demanding her release.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said the government urgently needs to free Khaleda Zia on humanitarian ground instead of engaging in politics over the issue.

Khaleda has been in jail since she was convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. She was found guilty in another corruption case later the same year, although her party claims both cases are politically motivated.