REHAB polls stayed for 3 months
The High Court today stayed the election to the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) for the next three months.
The election board of REHAB on March 3 announced the schedule to elect 21 members to its executive council for 2014-2016.
The HC passed the order following a writ petition by Prof Abu Yusuf Mohammad Abdullah, chairman of Prasad Nirman Limited, who was a candidate for the post of REHAB’s executive member.
He submitted the petition on May 22 to the HC, saying that he was declared a valid candidate on May 7 for contesting the election, but the election board has dropped his name from the candidate list on May 14 without showing any reason.
The petitioner prayed to the HC to pass necessary orders in this regard.
After hearing the petition, the HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain in four weeks why the election board’s action in excluding the name of the petitioner from the list of candidates should not be declared illegal.
The commerce secretary and REHAB’s election board have been made respondents to the rule, petitioner’s lawyer Ragib Rouf Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
AM Amin Uddin argued for the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy represented the government.
Earlier Saturday, the REHAB announced the members of its executive committee despite pending cases against them with an arbitration panel.
The 21-member executive committee for 2014-16 were handpicked by an influential minister on May 14 -- without conducting any election.
Several realtors said the three-member REHAB election board scrapped the candidatures of some contestants unlawfully and instructed the others to withdraw their nominations.
This caused the aggrieved candidates to file three cases with an arbitration committee formed by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
A hearing was held on Thursday, with the verdict scheduled to be announced yesterday. The five-member arbitration committee led by former FBCCI President AK Azad, however, was unable to announce its verdict.
The REHAB though, through a statement, Saturday announced the names of members of the executive committee. Alamgir Shamsul Alamin has been appointed the president and Md Wahiduzzaman the general secretary.
Comments