While the coalition government is arguing in favour of meting punishment to the accused, the current process of withdrawing these cases itself has raised questions of politicisation.

The process of reviewing such cases filed from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 2000 -- when the Awami League was in office -- began after the BNP-led alliance government took the decision on November 1, 2002, less than two months of assuming power, official sources said.

The government formed several committees periodically for reviewing such cases but put the onus of recommendations on the ministers, lawmakers and district- and thana-level ruling BNP leaders, blighting the hopes of a fair deal.

Opposition political parties are repeatedly blaming the government for releasing thousands of ruling coalition activists from jails purely on political consideration.

Initially, the government formed a five-member committee in each of the districts, headed by the deputy commissioners, to review the cases in their districts. The committees were asked to refer the cases to the home ministry for necessary action. Other members were the superintendents of police (SP), additional district magistrate (ADM), district representatives of National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the public prosecutor (PP).

Following verification by the district-level review committees, some 4,200 cases were withdrawn and 52,048 accused were freed at the instruction of the home ministry.

A year into its review operation, the district committees were dissolved on October 1, 2002 and a new two-member committee was formed in the 28th inter-ministerial meeting on the law and order in November, 2002. A home ministry joint secretary (police) and a law ministry solicitor sat on the committee.

On the report of the new committee, 1,458 more cases were withdrawn and more than 12,900 accused freed.

But the crux of the problem with the whole review process surfaced when an inter-ministerial meeting on law and order on September 22, 2002 decided to empower the ministers-in-charge of districts, local MPs and district and thana BNP presidents with the authority of making recommendations to the review committee. The process provided the ruling partymen with an opportunity to influence the withdrawal decisions of the home ministry.

The new arrangement prompted hectic lobbying by grassroots party leaders directly with the home ministry for the release of their party leaders and workers.

The district judge of Dhaka refused to withdraw the murder case against the brother of ruling BNP MP Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu and a judge in Barisal also declined to withdraw the arson case against those accused of setting fire to the house of an Awami League leader.