GHOST OF ONE-PARTY RULE LURKS
Last CJ harmed judiciary, caused uncertainty in the country
Ataus Samad
The last Chief Justice, A. B. M. Khairul Huq, went out of office leaving behind a cloud of suffocating smoke. When he retired last Tuesday, he did not leave behind an illuminated trail upon which Bangladesh could joyfully walk. Rather, even after his departure from the court the country is afraid as to whether it would enter a dark chamber or fall into a fiery cauldron if it followed the path he has marked by some of his judgments. These appeared to be confusing, contradictory, beyond jurisdiction, uncalled for, unwarranted and therefore undesirable to ordinary people like us. And now he will be in the eye of a political storm much in the same way as former Chief Justice K. M. Hasan was in 2006.
The BNP and its allies during their last regime had amended the Constitution to raise the age of retirement of judges of the Supreme Court. This extended the working period of the then Chief Justice and thus placed retired Justice K. M. Hasan to be the automatic nominee for the office of the head of the non-party care-taker government that was to take charge in October, 2006. Awami League knew that Justice K. M. Hasan was a pro-BNP activist as a lawyer. Also, the Hasina government had passed him over as a High Court judge when they appointed judges in the Appellate Division. So, they declared from the start that they would never accept K.M. Hasan as the Chief Advisor of the care-taker government. They finally took a path of violence and forced him to announce that he would not take the job. If history repeats itself now in the case of retired Chief Justice Khairul Huq then it will be he and Awami League to blame.
In the regular and ordinary course of events Justice A. B. M. Khairul Huq would not be first in line to be the next head of a non-party care-taker government. Justice Shah Mohammad Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman would be the person had he been appointed Chief Justice because as the senior-most judge. He would have retired in November next. This would push Justice Khairul Huq to the second place. But the government superseded Justice Abu Nayeem for the post of Chief Justice. An honourable man he instantly resigned on the second occasion of being bypassed. Indeed he is the first judge of the Bangladesh Supreme Court to have resigned from the Appellate Division in protest. The new Chief Justice will be in service past the end of the tenure of the Hasina government. So it is clear that the Awami League government wants retired Chief Justice Khairul Huq to head the next care-taker government that will be in charge of the country during the next parliamentary elections in Bangladesh.
Here, it needs to be kept in view that the Appellate Division, while being headed by retired Justice Khairul Huq gave a verdict (by majority vote) declaring as ultravires of and void the 13th amendment to the Constitution by which provision was made for a non-party care-taker government during parliament elections but ironically in the same breath it said that this system of care-taker government can remain in force for the next two parliament elections. It is obvious that such an arrangement will enable retired chief Justice A. B. M. Khairul Huq to be the Chief Advisor, that the head of the next election-time care-taker government. The whole thing seems to be pre-planned. It is a bit perplexing that the Awami League government would resort to a trick that was so easy to see through. Meanwhile, Justice Khairul Huq, when asked by newsmen as to whether he will be the Chief Advisor of the next care-taker government he failed to say 'no'. As the person who has pronounce from the pulpit of the Supreme Court that the 13th amendment to the Constitution was invalid, and who has also declared that the Supreme Court judges, should not be head and members of the non-party care-taker government even after leaving office, retired Justice Huq should have himself voluntarily declared that he would in no case accept that position. But not only has he failed to do so but he has kept open the possibility of him grabbing the post. He told the press, 'As to who heads the next care-taker government is a matter that will be decided in future.' But he remembered to add that he had faithfully and earnestly discharged responsibilities that came to him. This has given him away as a person whose sense of morality is poor, if not absent. Indeed BNP leaders have said again on Wednesday that retired Justice Khairul Huq is a person biased towards Awami League, that he has acted to satisfy the desire and needs of the Awami League leadership, that he has done much harm to the judiciary, that he has caused uncertainty in the country and that he has acted against morality in his remarks to newsmen on the subject of being the head of the next care-taker government. Indeed he contradicted himself about his opinion of the performance of judges in the lower court in a speech on Tuesday. Another remark in that speech proves his inefficiency in supervising the judiciary. Indeed every right thinking citizen of Bangladesh should vehemently oppose any move to appoint retired Chief Justice A. B. M. Khairul Huq as head of the next non-party care-taker government.
Awami League knows it well that BNP will boost the morale of party men by saying 'if they could stop K. M. Hasan, we can stop Khairul Huq'. Moreover, BNP leaders will explain to their followers that if they can torpedo retired Justice Khairul Huq then it will weaken the Awami League in the next election. Indeed, BNP supporters, who have stayed with the party throughout the dangerous and frightful two-year regime of General Moin U Ahmed and ex-civil servant Fakhruddin Ahmed, and then the rule of terror of Awami League need to be told that they are fighting for a right cause.
Meanwhile, BNP will need to be ready to take effective measures to prevent Awami League from reviving the ghost of one-party rule. The verdict nullifying the Fifth Amendment as it stands after review in the Appellate Division seems to be offering Awami-Baksalites an opportunity to do so. However, as the Twelfth Amendment, which brought about parliamentary system of government and also recognizes multi-party democracy by way of Article 70, stands in the way. But because Awami League has lost much popular support in the last two and a half years it's leaders can go wild and do crazy things as they did in the Sheikh Mujib's regime.
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