DHAKA - Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia has got a reprieve from being evicted from her house after the government told a court that she would not have to vacate while her petition over the matter was pending.

Zia will not be evicted while her petition is pending, the government assured the High Court, which fixed May 10 for the next hearing, media reports said Monday.

‘She (Khaleda) would in no way be disturbed till next Sunday. The notification for vacating the house does not mean immediate eviction,’ Attorney General Mahbubery Alam assured on behalf of the government.

The two-judge bench of Justices Zinat Ara and A.K.M. Abdul Hakim accepted the petition for hearing after judges of two earlier benches expressed ‘embarrassment’ at being assigned to hear Zia’s petition and withdrew, New Age newspaper said.

Zia is battling the Sheikh Hasina government that has asked her to vacate a colonial house in Dhaka Cantonment. She has been living there for nearly three decades.

She was leased the house after her husband, president Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in a military putsch in May 1981.

She has protested the attempt to evict her. Her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was staging street protests over the issue.

The government says the lease procedure was illegal and manipulated by Zia. It remains a government house and Zia cannot use it to conduct political activity.

An eviction notice was sent to Zia after Hasina told parliament that the house was needed to make way for homes for families of the victims of a mutiny that took place in February at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

Fifty-five Bangladesh Army officers on deputation to the BDR were killed in that mutiny.