The court also ordered all the accused in six cases filed in the last three days to appear before the court or give their statements through the media by that time.

After the adjournment of the Janatar Adalat, Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, who is also the president of Chittagong city Awami League, announced a nine-day programme against the high-ups in the alliance government who were made accused in the six cases.

ATM Nizamuddin of the Workers' Party and Abdus Salam, an entrepreneur, filed the two cases against 14 people, including the prime minister and the industries minister, yesterday accusing them of abject failure in the industrial sector and labour unrest in different industrial units.

Pleading the cases, eminent lawyer Barrister Amir-Ul Islam urged the Janatar Adalat to form a committee comprising legal experts to probe the allegations against the accused.

Nizamuddin filed a case in connection with labour unrest at different industrial units.

The accused included Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, Jute and Textile Minister Shahjahan Siraj, State Minister for Shipping Major (retd) Quamrul Islam, State Minister for Labour and Manpower Amanullah Aman, chairmen of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation and Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation, president of Bangladesh Jute Mills Owners' Association and chairman of the Chittagong Port Authority.

In his case, the plaintiff alleged that workers and employees of 23 jute and textiles mills in Chittagong are yet to get their arrears totalling Tk 162 crore.

Abdus Salam filed the other case against the prime minister, the industries minister and the industries secretary accusing them of failure in different sectors such as garments, textile, jute, power, banking, revenue, leather, tea and iron.