Govt conspiring to control SC judges: BNP

BNP on Thursday alleged that the government is conspiring to enable parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges in a bid to infringe the judiciary’s independence and establish its full control over the judiciary.
“We think a conspiracy is being hatched to restore parliament’s power to impeach judges with an evil move to snatch the independence of the judiciary,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He came up with the allegation while addressing an Iftar party arranged by Chakbazar thana unit BNP at a community centre seeking the early recovery of arrested BNP leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu.
The BNP spokesman warned the government that people will put up a strong resistance if the government does not shelve its plan.
Earlier on Thursday, the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law Ministry Suranjit Sengupta said the restoration of the constitutional provision that enables parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges to ensure its sovereignty.
He came up with the remarks while addressing a press briefing after a committee meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
Opposing Suranjit’s notion, Fakhrul said the government earlier took control over the police, Rab and other institutions of the country. “Now they’re taking a move to amend the constitution to establish their full control over the judiciary, too.”
During the ‘one-party Baksal rule’, he said, the provision had been included in the constitution to control judges.
Later, BNP founder late president Ziaur Rahman had dropped the provision from the charter and introduced a new system – Supreme Judicial Council – headed by the chief justice, he added.
Claiming that this government is not people’s representative as it was formed with the support of only five percent people, Fakhrul said this illegal government has no right to amend the constitution.
The BNP leader said the government is hanging onto power by force snatching people’s voting and democratic rights.
He urged the country’s people to get united to establish a pro-people government ousting the current ‘illegal’ administration.