Mintoo, Pintu finally lose nomination battle

UNB, Dhaka: The Dhaka Divisional Commissioner, the Appellate Authority, on Saturday upheld the returning officers’ decisions that declared invalid the nomination papers of mayoral hopefuls and BNP leaders Abdul Awal Mintoo and Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu in the Dhaka north and south city corporations respectively. Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman announced the decisions after separate hearings at his Segunbagicha office. While talking to reporters, Zillar said they rejected the appeals of the two candidates as per rules. BNP standing committee members Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Barrister Jamiruddin Sircar, former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Advocate Joynul Abedin and its current general secretary Mahbub Uddin Khokan among the lawyers joined the hearing on Mintoo’s behalf. Mintoo’s son Tafsir Awal represented his father in the hearing, while Mintoo’s another son Tabith Awal also present. Khokan and Pintu’s lawyer Aminul Islam said they would move the higher court against the Divisional Commissioner’s decision. Earlier on Thursday, Mintoo and Pintu appealed to the divisional commissioner seeking validity of their nominations allowing them to correct their mistakes for contesting the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) polls respectively. Mintoo’s lawyer Ehsanur Rahman and Pintu’s lawyer Aminul Islam made the appeals. Briefing reporters after the order against Mintoo, Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokan said they have not got justice and would move the High Court against the order after discussing with his client. “If Mintoo would have been an aspirant of the ruling party, the judgement would been the same,” he added. He claimed it was mistake of the government and the Election Commission as Abdur Razzak, who supported Mintoo’s nomination, was not mistakenly included in the voter list of Dhaka North City Corporation due to hurried move to announce the election schedules. The mistake Mintoo did was not a major flaw and it amendable. The returning officer rejected the nomination paper without understanding the law, Khokan added. During the hearing, Barrister Moudud Ahmed told the appellate authority that the commission should overlook the some minor problems for making the election participatory. Moudud said Abdur Razzak is a permanent resident of Uttara area and a regular tax payer in city corporation area but his name was not included in the voter list. The EC has cancelled the nomination paper of Mintoo due to this minor problem, which is not fair in the eye of law, he added. On Wednesday, the returning officer of the DNCC election rejected two mayoral nomination papers, including that of Mintoo, during scrutiny, while the returning officer of DSCC election rejected three mayoral nomination papers, including that of Pintu. DNCC returning officer Shah Alam rejected the nomination paper of Mintoo for procedural flaws as the person who supported his nomination is not a voter of the DNCC. Abdur Razzak, the seconder of Mintoo, is a voter of Uttara sector-13 under Harirampur Union, which is not under the DNCC area. On Saturday, the Appellate Authority heard 22 appeals, including that of three mayoral aspirants, but declared valid only mayoral nomination of AKM Rezaul Karim and that of four councillor aspirants. A total of 148 aspirants filed appeal challenging the decisions of the returning officers. As per the clause 12 (1) of the City Corporation Rules 2010, proposer and seconder must be voters of the respective city corporation area. Hence, the returning officer declared the nomination paper of Mintoo invalid according to the clause 14 (3) of the rules. In the DSCC, the returning officer turned down Pintu’s nomination as he was convicted in the BDR carnage case. As per the law, the candidates can challenge the decision of cancellation of the nominations with the Appellate Authority of the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner within three days.