The High Court order staying the six-year jail term of Jessore’s Jhikorgacha Upazila chairman and BNP nominee for Jashore-2, Sabira Sultana has been halted by the Supreme Court.

Chamber Judge Court Justice Hasan Foez Siddique stayed the order on Saturday (Dec 1) as well as fixed a full bench of the Appellate Division led by the chief justice that will hear the appeal on Sunday (Dec 2).

On Thursday (Nov 29), Sabira moved a petition before the High Court to stay her six years imprisonment in a graft case filed by Anti Corruption Commission.

A single HC bench of Justice Md Rais Uddin accepted her petition and her counsel said that there was no bar on her running for the polls.

Challenging the stay order on her sentence the state filed an appeal with the Chamber Judge Court on Saturday (Dec 1) after which the stay order on her sentence was halted.

Her counsel’s remarks were contradictory to an Appellate Division decision that upheld the HC order that anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison will not be able to take part in election.

According to that order, anyone sentenced to more than two years in prison is barred from taking part in the upcoming polls even if the HC stays their sentence or their appeal is running. They will only be eligible if the Appellate Division suspends their sentence or stays it.