Khaleda's letter to CEC gets stuck in a rut

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A senior prisons official has said detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia is not allowed to send out any "political" letter in line with the jail code, reports bdnews24.com.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of prisons Shamsul Haider Siddiqui Friday made it broadly clear that the letter might not be sent to the chief election commissioner CEC), which urged him to hold dialogue with the BNP's secretary general she appointed.
"If it's a political letter it won't reach the addressee. No detainee can make a political decision," the official said, referring to the jail code.
Infighting over the leadership of the troubled BNP stalled dialogue with the Election Commission (EC) as both factions of the party claimed to be in the mainstream.
"Even speaking of politics is a violation of the jail code," the prisons official said at a crowded press conference at Dhaka After meeting Khaleda, now detained in special jail on the Sangsad Bhaban complex, the former prime minister's lawyers told reporters Thursday that Khaleda had written a letter to the CEC through jail authorities.
In the letter Khaleda has described Khandaker Delwar Hossain as the "legal" secretary general of the party and urged the CEC to hold talks on electoral reforms only with him.
The jail authorities held the press conference Friday to explain the legal barriers to sending the letter to the main election office.
Major Shamsul Haider claimed, "Khaleda Zia's letter has not yet reached jail authorities."
But he said, "If there is any political matter, steps will be taken in line with the jail code."
Haider also said, "If detainees want to write letters they have to take paper from the jail authorities and handwrite them. If anybody is unable to write on their own, the jail authorities will write it on their behalf. But it seems that none of these happened in this case. Khaleda Zia did not ask for any paper from the authorities. Maybe the letter was not written by hand."