HC summons cultural affairs secretary

The High Court yesterday summoned the cultural affairs secretary to appear before it on February 16 for not complying with most of its directives to protect the sanctity and dignity of the Central Shaheed Minar.
The Central Shaheed Minar was set up in Dhaka to maintain the spirit of the 1952 Language Movement and pay tribute to its heroes.
According to the court order, Cultural Affairs Secretary Suraiya Begum has to appear before the HC by 10:30am on the day to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be brought against her for not executing the directives.
In response to a contempt of court petition filed on Sunday, an HC bench yesterday ordered Secretary of Housing and Public Works Khandker Shawkat Hossain to immediately hang two signboards containing HC directives at the Central Shaheed Minar premises.
The bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Farid Ahmed also asked the housing and public works secretary to submit a report to it by February 16 after carrying out the order.
Petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star that the government has not complied with most of the HC directives except appointing a security guard and a sweeper.
This amounts to contempt of court, he said.
Following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, the HC issued the directives upon the secretaries of cultural affairs and housing and public works on August 25 of 2010.
It ordered them to set up a museum and a library at any side of the Shaheed Minar and to prevent unsocial activities from taking place there.
The court also directed them to take effective steps so that no function or meeting can be held at the original Bedi (main part) of the Minar except in February.
It ordered the officials concerned to form a committee that would prepare a list of language heroes and publish it in a gazette notification by January 31 this year and appoint three security guards to protect the Minar.
Lastly the authorities were directed to honour the language heroes, both dead and alive, with posthumous and other awards for their contribution to the language movement and publish brochures containing the history of the movement in both Bangla and English and distribute it to those visiting the country.