In Search of EC: Turn in 5 names
The newly formed search committee in its first meeting yesterday requested 31 political parties to recommend five names each to the additional secretary of the Cabinet Division by 11:00am on Tuesday for the appointment of the chief election commissioner and other commissioners.
“The committee will sit with 12 eminent personalities of the country at the Supreme Court Judges Lounge at 4:00pm on Monday,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told journalists after the meeting at the Judges Lounge.
President Abdul Hamid formed the six-member search committee, headed by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, on January 25 after holding a series of talks with 31 political parties to constitute the next Election Commission.
The tenure of the incumbent commission expires next month.
According to the gazette notification, the search committee will recommend two names each for the posts of the EC chief and four election commissioners.
The panel will present its recommendations to the president in 10 working days, it said. Later, the president, on the prime minister's advice, will appoint the EC chief and other commissioners.
Beginning at 11:00am yesterday, the search committee's meeting lasted for around an hour and forty-five minutes.
Shafiul said the committee held the meeting to decide on its modus operandi.
Copies of a letter will be sent to all the political parties, who took part in talks with the president, to recommend five names to the Cabinet Division's additional secretary.
On Monday, the search committee will meet 12 eminent citizens. They are former High Court judge Md Abdur Rashid, former vice chancellors of Dhaka University Prof AK Azad Chowdhury and Prof SMA Fayez, educationalist Serajul Islam Choudhury, rights activist Sultana Kamal, former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, former election commissioners Sohul Hussain and Sakhawat Hussain, local government expert Tofail Ahmed, secretary of Shushanor Jonno Nagorik Badiul Alam Majumdar, Prof Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq of Dhaka University and former inspector general of police Nurul Huda.
Talking to The Daily Star, Mahbubul Alam Hanif, joint general secretary of the Awami League, said they would discuss the issue within the party after receiving the formal proposal from the search committee.
“We will propose names for the appointment of chief election commissioner and other commissioners,” he added.
Hanif, however, said he personally believed that it would not be logical to seek names from the political parties. “Competent persons might be dropped from the list of probable commissioners if they were recommended by any political party. This might give rise to controversy later.”
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said they will submit the names on time.
“We are yet to receive the letter from the search committee. We will submit names if we receive it,” he told this correspondent.
Asked whether they would disclose the names, he said the party would hold a meeting after receiving the letter and would decide about it.
PETITION FILED WITH HC
A supplementary petition was filed with the High Court yesterday, seeking stay on the activities of the search committee, reports UNB.
Supreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed the petition as a writ petition was earlier filed with the HC seeking its directives to formulate a law for constituting the EC.
Talking to reporters, Eunus said the formation of the search committee for reconstituting the new EC is “contradictory” to the article 118 (1) of the constitution which says: “There shall be an Election Commission for Bangladesh consisting of the chief election commissioner and not more than four election commissioners and the appointment of the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners [if any] shall, subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf, be made by the President”.
He said the recently formed search committee is “illegal” as the country's charter speaks of a law for constituting the EC.
Eunus filed a writ petition with the HC on January 11 seeking its directives to formulate a law for constituting the EC and the petition was kept on Sunday's cause list for hearing with the HC bench of Justice M Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice JBM Hassan.
The cabinet secretary, the law secretary and the EC were made respondents to the petition, the lawyer added.
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