Former Bangladesh PM's exile delayed

DHAKA: Plans by Bangladesh's military-backed emergency government to exile former premier Khaleda Zia to Saudi Arabia appeared to stall on Tuesday over visa negotiations, a report said.

The independent 'New Age' daily, quoting diplomatic sources, said the Saudi embassy in Dhaka has 'refused to issue a long-stay visa to Zia unless she appears at the embassy in person.'

The report said Saudi authorities need Zia to 'testify to the fact that she would indeed be entering the kingdom of her own free will.'

The government is trying to exile Zia, the country's last prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Wajed as part of a massive anti-corruption campaign aimed at giving the country a new start.

Both women stand accused of years of misrule that culminated in a political crisis in January.

Zia is reported to have agreed to leave the country in return for leniency for her two sons, both of whom face corruption allegations.

Sheikh Hasina was on Sunday barred from boarding a flight to Dhaka from London.

Murder and extortion charges were filed against her last month while she was in the United States visiting relatives.

A statement issued late on Monday, apparently signed by a dozen leaders of different wings of her Awami League, called on party activists to stage demonstrations on Tuesday against the ban on her return.

But the party on Tuesday denied any knowledge of the statement.

"We think someone else has issued the statement," Awami League general secretary and party spokesman Abdul Jalil said.

All political protests and gatherings have been banned since emergency rule was imposed in January. 

The interim government has pledged to hold elections by the end of 2008 after it has completed sweeping reforms aimed at putting democracy back on track.