20-party calls hartal for Monday
The BNP-led 20-party alliance has called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal for Monday protesting the latest constitutional amendment empowering parliament to remove Supreme Court judges.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the programme from a press briefing at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office this evening.
The announcement came after a meeting of secretaries general of the components of the alliance at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office today.
Parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed the 16th constitutional amendment bill, empowering itself to remove Supreme Court judges for misbehaviour and incapacity, rejecting all calls for soliciting public opinion and bringing some changes to the bill.
The House got back this power after around four decades. However, it will not be able to exercise it until a separate law is enacted outlining the procedure for investigating alleged misbehavior or incapacity of the SC judges.
The law minister earlier said the law would be enacted in three months of the passage of the bill.
The 1972 constitution empowered parliament with this authority. But the House was unable to exercise the power as the then government did not formulate any law. Rather, the then AL-led government curtailed the power through the fourth amendment to the constitution in January 1975.
Then military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman introduced the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), amending the constitution through a martial law order which was ratified by the fifth amendment to the constitution in 1979.
The High Court in 2005 declared the fifth amendment illegal and void. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 2010 upheld the HC verdict, but condoned the introduction of the SJC until December 2012.
The AL-led government, however, introduced afresh the SJC through the 15th amendment to the charter in 2011.
But the government changed its mind within three years. Its move to empower parliament to remove SC judges has drawn huge criticism from different quarters. Many jurists and opposition political parties fear the latest amendment will pose a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
Placed in parliament on September 7, the bill was passed in around three and a half hours.
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