<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A Dhaka court on Sunday fixed February 26 to hold hearing on charge framing in Niko graft case against BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman passed the order at a temporary courtroom of the Dhaka Special Judge's Court-9 at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Appearing on behalf of Khaleda Zia, lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali sought exemption from filing charges against her. As the hearing did not end today, the court re-fixed the date.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007 for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ACC on May 5 in 2008 submitted the charge-sheet against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of incurring a loss of more than Taka 13 thousand crore of state exchequer by that deal. BSS</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>