SC hearing on appeal to start soon: AG

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said his office will take an initiative soon for the apex court hearing on the 2013 appeal against the High Court verdict that declared illegal the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami with the Election Commission.

If the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upholds the High Court verdict regarding cancellation of Jamaat's registration, the party (Jamaat) cannot operate as a political party in the country, he said while talking to media at his office on the Supreme Court premises.

On February 6, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the parliament that the government has nothing to do about banning the Jamaat-e-Islami right now as a case in this regard is pending at a court.

On August 1, 2013, following a writ petition, a three-member special HC bench by a majority view declared illegal the registration of Jamaat as a political party and ruled that its registration has no legal effect.

The same year, Jamaat, a component of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, filed an appeal and a leave-to-appeal petition with the Appellate Division challenging the HC verdict.

On October 29 last year, the EC scrapped the registration of Jamaat and issued a gazette notification to this end, blocking the party from contesting the national polls.

Yesterday, a source in Jamaat-e-Islami told this newspaper that the attorney general's office cannot move for hearing the appeal against the HC verdict on the registration of Jamaat, as the government is not a party of the case.

Jamaat's lawyers will place arguments before the apex court when the matter will come up in the hearing list serially, according to the source.