We'll bin charter changes: Khaleda

Dhaka, July 13 (bdnews24.com) ? The BNP chairperson has said the recent amendments to the constitution were Awami League's own agenda, so her party will throw them away once in power.

After observing an eight-hour hunger strike on Wednesday, Khaleda Zia said, "We want to say these amendments are Awami manifesto, which will be thrown away the next time the government changes."

She reiterated that BNP would not let any election be held without a caretaker government.

"People will not accept if an election is held by Hasina and Ershad without BNP," she said, naming the heads of two of the ruling allies.

WARNING TO LAWMEN

Khaleda Zia expressed her anger on the 'excesses' of the police and RAB against the opposition.

"This government is not here forever. No one will be able to protect you when this government goes," she said.

She strongly criticised the police attack on the opposition chief whip. "The police should be saluting MPs. Instead, they are kicking democracy with their boots," she said.

Khaleda also warned intelligence agencies, saying, "Intelligence men have tortured our party men in the name of remand. I would tell them to refrain from this, otherwise they will face consequences."

PEOPLE ON HUNGER STRIKE EVERYDAY

The BNP chairperson said that BNP's observance of the eight-hour hunger strike was symbolic. "The people are on hunger strike everyday due to the high prices of essentials," she pointed out.

"We cannot let this government run any longer. We have to bring it down to break the people's hunger strikes," she said.

CORRIDOR NOT TRANSIT

The BNP chairperson demanded that the government make public the contracts made with India.

"The government did not present in parliament any agreement it signed, though the constitution says it must be done within a month striking the deal. On the contrary, they brought an amendment to cancel that provision," she said.

Criticising the transit agreement, she said, "That is not a transit agreement. The government has given India a corridor. The government must let us know what are the gives and takes of this deal."

She criticised the 'undemocratic role' of the government, saying the opposition was not being allowed to hold rallies, processions and other democratic rights.

Khaleda also demanded exemplary punishment to the teachers who sexually abuse students, including the Viqarunnisa Noon School and College teacher Parimal, who was recently arrested for abusing a student.

She went on to recount several incidents of sexual assault by the members of Chhatra League, the ruling party's student wing.

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Hasina snubs Khaleda for charter remarks

Dhaka, July 14 (bdnews24.com)?Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has derided opposition chief Khaleda Zia's remark that she will throw the amended constitution out once in power.

The nation does not expect such 'indecent' remarks about the 'sacred' constitution, she said on Thursday.

"It is only natural for the opposition leader to deliver such speech as her husband [Ziaur Rahman] trampled the constitution by usurping power," Hasina said at a programme of the newly elected officers of the Institution of Diploma Engineers (IDE).

The BNP chairperson on Wednesday said the recent amendments to the constitution were Awami League's own agenda, so her party would throw them away once in office.

The amendment to the constitution made on June 30 annulled the caretaker government system, introduced through the 13th amendment in 1996. The main opposition, from the very beginning, has been protesting the move.

Hasina reiterated that the BNP and its key ally Jamaat were trying to hinder the ongoing trials of the 'war criminals, grenade assailants, money-launderers and corrupt'.

In the ongoing trial of war crimes, five top leaders of the BNP and two others of Jamaat-e-Islami are currently facing charges.

Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman is currently facing charges for money laundering while younger son Arafat Rahman Coco has been convicted for a similar crime. Tarique, also BNP's senior vice-chairman, has 14 cases against him on charges of corruption and extortion. Two arrest warrants have been issued for him in the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack.

The prime minister pointed out that the trial of Pakistani occupation army's collaborators had begun following the 1971 war. "Citizenship of many people was scrapped and a number of others were arrested too.

"But it was Ziaur Rahman who had freed those 'war criminals' and also rehabilitated them in politics by a military order. Many of them went on to become ministers and MPs," she added.

After gaining independence on Dec 16, 1971, the government of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had taken initiatives to try the local collaborators.

Some 37,471 collaborators, mainly comprising the Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams militias, were detained, and the trial of 2,848 people was completed by Oct 31, 1973. The court sentenced 752 to death.

Some 26,000 were freed under a general amnesty announced on Nov 30, 1973. But those accused of killing, rape, loot, arson and abduction were not granted amnesty.

Proceedings for the trial of around 11,000 accused were underway after the amnesty, but the process was halted after Sheikh Mujib's killing in 1975.

Despite trying them subsequently, Hasina alleged, Ziaur Rahman appointed some of them as Bangladesh's ambassadors in several countries.

"His [Ziaur Rahman] wife Khaleda Zia made Bangabandhu's murderer Col Rashid the opposition leader and another assassinator Huda an MP through the Feb 15 election without any voter," she said.

The prime minister said the imposition of martial law killed the spirit of Liberation War embedded in the constitution. "The politics of capturing power through killings and coup started since then."

She said her government reinstated the spirit of the Liberation War in the charter through the 15th Amendment.

"It was possible for us to do as people fetched a huge victory to the grand-alliance government through voting in the last general election," she said and thanked the people for their gesture.

State minister for science and information and communications technology Yeafesh Osman, IDE president A K M A Hamid and general secretary Mohammad Shamsur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.

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SC yet to get copy of reprinted Charter

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Author / Source : MUHAMMAD YEASIN

DHAKA, JUNE 24: Even after 136 days since the Constitution was reprinted, the charter’s guardian, the Supreme Court, is yet to get a copy of the new version. Lawyers and judges are wondering where have the 500 copies of the reprinted Constitution gone. Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Law Ministry reprinted 500 copies of the Constitution on February 10 at the Bangladesh Government
(BG) Press in the light of the Supreme Court verdict on the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) did not get any copy of the reprinted Constitution. Talking to The Independent, some lawmakers said they didn’t get it (reprinted Constitution). Supreme Court registrar, AKM Shamsul Islam, said his office is yet to receive a copy.

“I have asked law ministry officials to provide me with a copy of the reprinted Constitution. But they said they have no copy at the moment. I felt embarrassed when High Court judges sought a copy,” he said.
SCBA general secretary, Barrister Badruddoza Badol, said: “The bar didn’t get any copy of the reprinted Constitution.”
There is no basis for reprinting the Constitution in the light of the judgment and bypassing Parliament, he said. “The government hasn’t given the reprinted copy to the people because it wants to change the charter according to its wish,” he alleged, and added that the country was  passing through a period of worst-ever constitutional crisis.
Differences of opinion about the reprinted Constitution also remain among the judges of the High Court. A Supreme Court lawyer, Barrister Md Abdul Halim, has already stood before two benches of the HC seeking a suo motu rule upon the government to provide a reprinted copy of the Constitution.
Talking to The Independent, he said that following his prayer, a HC division bench, headed by Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury, asked him to collect a copy of the reprinted Constitution from the Attorney General’s office.
“Everything cannot be done by law,” said Halim quoting the judge.
However, another bench of the HC, headed by Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque, expressed his inability to issue rule as per Article 102 of the Constitution.
“Then, I asked the judge, ‘under which Constitution (reprinted one or other one) your lordship is running this court (the bench)’, and Justice Haque showed me a ready Constitution, printed in 2008, and said, ‘Under this Constitution (this court is being run)’.”
“I don’t know whether the government reprinted the Constitution or not,” Halim said, quoting the HC judge.
On a writ petition, the High Court division bench on August 29, 2005 pronounced a verdict declaring the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution illegal, void and ultra vires to the Constitution. The Appellate Division on February 2 last year upheld the HC Verdict with some amendments and modifications. The government on February 10 this year reprinted 500 copies of the Constitution in line with the apex court’s verdict on the Fifth Amendment.

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