Final hearing on proclamation of independence starts

The government yesterday produced the copies of the daily Ittefaq, the daily Sangbad and the daily Azad published from March 1, 1971 to March 25, 1971, before a High Court (HC) bench to examine the historical background on the declaration of independence of the country.
Deputy Attorney General Mostafa Zaman Islam on behalf of the government produced the back issues of the dailies containing reports on the events regarding the declaration of independence, as the bench yesterday began its final hearing on the writ petition challenging the validity of official documentation of Major Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of independence.
During the hearing before the bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Momtazuddin Ahmed, the petitioner's counsel advocate Manzill Murshid told the court that historically documenting Major Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of Bangladesh's independence is a violation of the law and the constitution.
Meanwhile, former army chief Lt Gen (retd) Harun-or-Rashid filed an application on behalf of the Sector Commanders' Forum (SCF) for becoming an additional party in the case.
Hearing of the application will be held today.
On April 20, the HC upon a writ petition issued a rule upon the government to explain why direction should not be given to proscribe the impugned 2004 edition of the Bangladesh War of Liberation inserting Maj Ziaur Rahman as the proclaimer of the independence on March 26, 1971.
The court in the rule asked the government to explain why it should not be directed to ban the set of books that distorted the fact regarding the proclamation.
It also directed the government to produce all the newspapers published from March 1, 1971 to March 25, 1971, kept in the national archive of Bangladesh, before the court during the hearing of the rule.
Dr MA Salam, a freedom fighter and a private practitioner, filed the writ petition as public interest litigation (PIL) on April 19.
Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam, who was involved in drafting the Proclamation of Independence, and Additional Attorney General M Enayetur Rahim placed submissions as amicus curiae (friends of court) on the issue yesterday.