DHAKA, 26 September 2007 — Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) questioned five former ministers yesterday over graft charges involving ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her son, officials said.

Investigators summoned the ministers to testify whether Khaleda had in 2003 approved the contract for a firm handling containers at the country’s biggest port, Chittagong, and a container depot in Dhaka.

The commission is investigating whether the Dhaka-based Global Agro Trade (Private) Company was awarded the contract only after Khaleda was persuaded by her younger son, Arafat Rahman, to overrule a state purchase committee’s recommendation.

The eight ex-ministers were former Cabinet colleagues of Khaleda, who completed her five-year tenure in October last year.

She and her son were arrested earlier this month on charges they accepted bribes from the firm in exchange for the container contract.

Police have also arrested a son of a former shipping minister and six officials of the Chittagong Port Authority, including a former chairman, in the same case..

Former ministers M. Saifur Rahman, Shamsul Islam, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, M. K. Anwar and Matiur Rahman Nizami were at the anti-graft commission’s offices for several hours yesterday to answer questions, officials said.

“We got what we wanted to know from them, so they have been allowed to go back home,” a senior ACC official said.

Ismail Hossain, the detained son of former Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain, has told police in a confessional statement that he accepted 20 million taka ($290,000) from a Dhaka-based firm and handed half to Arafat Rahman to convince his mother to approve the deal.

Two more ministers who are already in custody would also be quizzed in connection with the charges against Khaleda and her younger son Arafat, said commission official Reba Halder.

“The Anti-Corruption Commission has called the ministers of the previous BNP government. Five have been questioned today and we will interrogate the two detained ministers in jail,” Halder said, adding that one of the eight was currently abroad.

The ACC also filed cases against four suspects, including former BNP minister Shajahan Siraj and Awami League leader Kamal Ahmed Majumder for concealing information about their assets and having wealth beyond their known sources of income.