BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will not appear before a Dhaka court today in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case hearing as her two petitions are pending in High Court. “She will not be able to appear in the Special Judge’s Court in Bakshibazar due to illness. Besides, her petitions are pending in High Court as the vacation bench sent the matter to the regular bench for disposal,” barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon, one of the counsels for the BNP chief, told The Independent yesterday afternoon. The BNP chairperson had filed the petitions challenging the legality of a trial court order that had rejected her two petitions in the graft case. One petition seeks fresh cross-examination of the investigating officer, while the other wants the case diary scrutinized. The Supreme Court is on vacation from April 17 to May 1. Khaleda filed the petitions in HC on April 18 after getting the trial court order the day before. Citing from the petitions, Khokon said the investigating officer in question, Harunur Rashid, was withdrawn from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2005 for incompetence. Hence, Rashid’s statement as the investigating officer in the graft case was not acceptable. A Dhaka trial court rejected Khaleda’s petitions as it found “no grounds” to uphold them. The trial court fixed April 26 for further hearing in the graft case.