CJ shows the way

Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque yesterday submitted his wealth statement to President Zillur Rahman.
A source at the Supreme Court told The Daily Star that the chief justice on Monday would ask judges of the Appellate Division and the High Court divisions to submit their wealth statement to him.
The chief justice feels that other judges would be encouraged to submit theirs to him after he has submitted his own wealth statement to the president, sources said.
The Supreme Court Registrar Mohammad Ashraful Islam delivered the chief justice's wealth statement to Bangabhaban yesterday afternoon.
Sources say that the chief justice in the statement said he has Tk 2.19 lakh in his bank account and he owns a 10-katha piece of land in Dhaka. He also said his wife inherited a flat in Dhaka.
His has two sons, an engineer and a lawyer, and a daughter, who is a doctor.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam thanked the chief justice for “setting the historic example for other judges in the judiciary”.
He called upon the judges of the Supreme Court to submit their wealth statements to the chief justice. He said for the sake of transparency the judges should release their wealth statement to the public when they are appointed and when they go into retirement.
It is mandatory for Bangladesh's lower court judges to attach their wealth statements to their annual confidential reports to the Supreme Court.
Since the 2008 general elections, no minister or ruling party lawmaker, apart from Finance Minister AMA Muhith, released their annual wealth statement to the public even though the Awami League had pledged that they would do so in its election manifesto.
Last January, Supreme Court sources told The Daily Star that the chief justice would submit his wealth statement in January 2011.