Moudud fears constitutional vacuum

A constitutional vacuum will be created if the Supreme Court upholds the High Court verdict that nullified the fifth amendment to the country's constitution, Barrister Moudud Ahmed told the apex court yesterday.
Late president Ziaur Rahman brought the fifth amendment to the constitution in accordance with law, as the people of the country had given him the mandate for it through a referendum, argued Moudud also a former BNP law minister.
He said the HC judgment practically rewrote the constitution, which it cannot do, adding that the judgment reflects the judges' personal political views.
According to the constitution, the HC has no jurisdiction to nullify the fifth amendment, he said.
The fifth amendment legitimised all governments that had been in power following the coup of August 15, 1975 till April 9, 1979, including Ziaur Rahman's ascension to the presidency.
On August 29, 2005, the HC in a landmark verdict declared illegal and void the amendment, rendering illegal the regimes presided over by Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem, and Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman between those two dates.
On May 25 last year two leave to appeal petitions were filed with the SC against the HC verdict.
One of the petitions was filed by three SC lawyers -- Tajul Islam, Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan, and Munshi Ahsan Kabir -- and the other by BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain.
Moudud yesterday placed his arguments on behalf of the three lawyer petitioners before a six-member SC Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Md Tafazzul Islam during the fourth day's hearing of the appeals.
The hearing was later adjourned till this morning.