There will be no justice: Fakhrul

BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has claimed that people will be denied justice if the power to remove the Supreme Court judges is bestowed on the Parliament, which ‘does not represent the people’.

Speaking at a rally at the National Press Club on Wednesday, he said the ruling Awami League was going to ‘fully control’ the judiciary by taking back the jurisdiction to impeach the judges through constitutional amendment.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance organised the rally in protest against the government’s move to entrust Parliament the jurisdiction to impeach judges by dissolving the Supreme Judicial Council introduced by the military dictator Ziaur Rahman.

Fakhrul, also the spokesperson of the BNP, said: “The government is going to give back the power of impeaching judges to the Parliament, which doesn’t represent the people.”

“Its objective is clear. Through it, the government wants to put the final nail in the coffin of judiciary so that the judges cannot deliver any judgement judiciously,” he said.

The people would not get ‘minimum justice’ if the government succeeds in its move, Fakhrul said calling all to resist it.

Meanwhile, he questioned the role of two incumbent ministers -- Hasanul Haque Inu and Rashed Khan Menon – while reacting to their criticism of BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman for the statements he had made in London.

“What was the role of Menon and Inu in the one-party BAKSAL rule in 1975? These people formed JaSaD and armed Gonobahini to unseat Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” he said.

Rahman had held leaders of the left parties partially responsible for the murder of the then President Sheikh Mujibur in 1975.

Leaders of other parties of the alliance also addressed the rally.