Lawyers to boycott courts tomorrow
Bangladesh Bar Council yesterday passed a resolution to boycott courts across the country tomorrow demanding cancellation of the latest amendment to the constitution.
Council leaders in a meeting with different bar association leaders also decided to stage black-flag demonstrations at all bar associations today to press home their demand.
AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, a member of the bar council dominated by pro-BNP lawyers, proposed the programmes which was later approved by the meeting by voice votes at the auditorium of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
However, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, ex-officio chairman of the council, a statutory autonomous body, disapproved the decision of court boycott claiming that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the bar council.
Rejecting all calls for soliciting public opinion and bringing some changes to the bill, parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed the 16th constitutional amendment bill, empowering itself to remove Supreme Court judges for misbehaviour and incapacity.
Announcing the agitation programmes, Mahbub Uddin, also the secretary of SCBA, said the amendment must be abolished for upholding the freedom and dignity of the judiciary.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, vice-chairman of the council, said the government passed the “sudden amendment” at a time when the acceptability of parliament is “under question.”
“If the impeachment power is given to parliament, the judges of the higher judiciary [Supreme Court] will turn into chess pieces of politics…. Judges won't be able to discharge their duties independently due to political pressure,” added Mahbub, also the SCBA president.
The council demanded the government set specific rules for appointment of judges to the High Court and set up a separate secretariat for lower courts immediately “to save courts from the control of the law ministry”.
It also asked the government to take immediate steps for a fresh and neutral national election to form an “elected democratic government.”
Speaking at the meeting, around 30 representatives from different bar associations denounced the latest constitutional amendment by the House and sought bar council's directives to have the amendment scrapped.
“The government had an ulterior motive for amending the constitution.... It will be dangerous for the judiciary. There is no option but to waging a movement to cancel it,” said Aftab Uddin Ahmed, president of Bogra Bar Association.
Tania Amir, a member of the council, however, apparently disapproved the council's stance and resolution on the constitutional amendment.
“Simple cancellation of the amendment will not solve the problem,” observed Tania, one of three members of the council elected from Sammilito Ainjibi Shamannay Parishad, a pro-Awami League forum. The rest of the 11 members are from the pro-BNP panel.
“We've to discuss the freedom of judiciary and also its accountability. That's why we have to find the right solution [to the issue],” she mentioned.
She left the auditorium just before the resolution was adopted by the meeting.
Bar council members AJ Mohammad Ali, Sanaullah Miah and Golam Mostafa Khan spoke, among others.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star last night that Mahbub Hossain, as the vice-chairman of the bar council, has been “abusing his power for political motives”.
The council is to regulate enrolment of lawyers, and monitor their professional conducts and manner, but boycotting courts does not fall under its purview, he insisted.
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