Qamrul asked to provide fresh explanation, next hearing on Mar 27

Food Minister Qamrul Islam has been asked by the apex court to provide fresh explanations over his remarks on appeal hearing of war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali.

Qamrul and his colleague Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq appeared before the Supreme Court on Sunday.

The court found Qamrul’s explanation not good enough and told him to provide a fresh one.

The seven-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has fixed Mar 27 for the next hearing and asked the ministers to appear before it on that day.

The Cabinet members had been pulled up by the top court’s full bench for their remarks made at a roundtable on Mar 5.

In compliance with an earlier court order, the ministers appeared before the court on Sunday and explained themselves through their lawyers.

Both of them, however, had already apologised and sought the court’s forgiveness for their remarks.

Barrister Rafique Ul Huq and advocate Abdul Baset Majumder represented the ministers in court on Sunday.

The Cabinet members had to stand on the dock for about five minutes after the court began proceedings at 9:15am. They were later allowed to sit down after their counsels pleaded to the court.

Speaking at a discussion on Mar 5, Qamrul had called for a new bench that, in his view, should exclude the chief justice to hear Mir Quasem’s appeal.

Justice Sinha’s displeasure at the work of the International Crimes Tribunal’s investigators and prosecutors in the war crimes cases, including Mir Quasem’s one, had been seen by the minister as a 'broad hint' that the war criminal’s death penalty might not be upheld.

Minister Mozammel had also criticised the chief justice at the same programme.

Their remarks had led to a furore in the media and social networking sites, prompting the Ganajagaran Mancha to suspect a 'conspiracy' to save the Jamaat-e-Islami leader.

Leaders of the BNP as well as Mir Quasem’s chief counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain had described the ministers’ comments as ‘interference in the judiciary’s independence’.

While Attorney General Mahbubey Alam urged all to refrain from commenting on the sub-judice matter, Law Minister Anisul Huq and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed even refrained from commenting on their colleagues’ remarks.

Media reports said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Cabinet meeting on Mar 7 had made it clear that the ministers’ remarks did not represent the views of her government.

On Mar 8, the top court delivered the verdict in the case, upholding former Al-Badr leader Mir Quasem’s death sentence, for his 1971 war crimes, handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal in November 2014.

Before the verdict was pronounced, the nine-member full appeals bench issued an order summoning Qamrul Islam and Mozammel Huq to appear before it on Mar 15.

The court said their comments had “undermined the dignity and prestige of the Supreme Court and the office of the chief justice”.

It also issued a notice asking why legal action would not be taken against them for their comments and told the ministers to respond by Mar 14.

Mozammel appeared before the court on Mar 15 while Qamrul’s lawyer appealed for more time as his client was out of the country on an official trip.

The court had then fixed Mar 20 for the hearing.