Scrapping of Jamaat EC registration: 47 get SC’s nod to place arguments
Staff Reporter :
A total of 47 supporters of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have sought permission from the Supreme Court to place arguments before it in favour of the party’s long pending appeal against a High Court verdict that scrapped its registration with the Election Commission.
They submitted an application to the Appellate Division of the SC on Tuesday seeking its permission to become a party to the leave to appeal petition for placing their arguments through lawyers.
The 47 applicants include Jamaat’s former lawmakers Dr Syed Abdullah Md Taher, Hamidur Rahman Azad and Hafeja Asma Khatun, Manarat University’s Vice Chancellor M Umar Ali and Dhaka University’s Prof Abdur Rab and three freedom fighters.
Citing the application, their lawyer Golam Rahman Bhuiyan said that Jamaat’s registration is a settled matter and they have a right to do politics as they had representation in parliament three times.
The EC has cancelled Jamaat’s registration “illegally”, he said, adding that the 47 persons have filed the application voluntarily.
Golam Rahman said hearing of the application may be held at the Appellate Division on Thursday.
Earlier on July 27, forty-two eminent citizens from different professions filed an application with the SC, seeking its permission to place arguments before it against Jamaat in connection with a pending contempt of court petition.
The applicants include academician and historian Syed Anwar Hossain; writer and researcher Shariar Kabir educationist Shyamali Nasreen Choudhury; actor, stage director and theater producer Ramendu Majumder.
Following a writ petition, the HC in a landmark verdict on August 1, 2013, declared illegal Jamaat’s registration with the EC. The commission in the same year suspended the registration of the political party.
Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, then secretary general of Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, along with 24 others filed a writ petition with the HC on January 25, 2009, seeking its order declaring Jamaat’s registration illegal.
The petitioners said Jamaat was a religion-based political party and it didn’t believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.
The EC scrapped the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami in October 2018, making it clear that the party will not be able to contest the upcoming national election.
In the verdict, two judges of the three-member HC bench declared the registration illegal.
However, the other judge disagreed with the decision of his two colleagues. Jamaat then filed the appeal with the apex court challenging the HC verdict.
