Adv. Shahanur Islam Saikot
Programme Manager-Legal & Human Rights
The present Army backed care taker government under Dr. Fakruddin Ahmed took oath on 11 January 2007 under the Constitution of Bangladesh Article 58 (C) with mandatory constitutional binding to hold general election within 90 days and hand over power to the people representative. 90 days time frame already crossed on 11 March 2007 but this gov’t could not yet hold the election. They are taking the plea of preparation of Photo voter list and voter national ID card. As per constitution this is not mandatory but holding of general election within 90 days is mandatory. To hold the election within constitutional time frame the Bangladesh Supreme Court passed an order to update the existing voter list which could be completed maximum within one month and within next two months the election could easily be held to maintain the constitutional time frame. But this gov’t claims to be backed by army not supported by the people for which they are pro-army not pro-people gov’t. That it is an Army Govt. under civilian label like Pakistan. So this gov’t, to materialize the desire of Army as per blue print of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has chalked out a master plan to put all the popular, secularist, democratic public leaders of the 2 most popular political parties behind the bar on concocted charges of corruption, extortion, tax evasion etc and conviction in camera trial by special court. A large number of widely known corrupt politicians have not been touched because of their underhand allegiance with the blue print of this government. As an example Mr. Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the ex local gov’t minister of immediate past BNP- Jamat gov’t had been detected as a most corrupt minister by transparency International of Bangladesh (TIB) has not yet been charged with corruption rather he and his many other political associates have been allowed to continue political activities although during the time all political activities was restricted under emergency power ordinance. Similar is the case with Dr. Ferdous Ahmed Qureshi. He maintains strong allegiance with the army. So, no political restriction has put any bar in his indoor and out door political programme. Under the direct guidance and finance of the government he has formed a new political party named Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and regularly he is performing political programme. But their government backed so called political activities could not yet receive public support rather they have been facing severe public criticism and they are always afraid to face the public without security protection. On the other hands Sheikh Hasina, a most popular leader, a legendarily honest personality, once prime minister of Bangladesh and twice the leader of opposition, popularly known as the daughter of secular democracy, the president of the oldest and most popular democratic political party Awami League has been put in to jail since 16 July 2007 on absolutely false charges of extortion occurred in 1997 and 2000. The general Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League Mr. Abdul Jalil, Senior Joint Secretary of AL Mr. Obaidul Quader, Presidium member of AL Mr. Jafrullah Chowdhury , Mr. Sheikh Fazlul Haq Selim, Dr. Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and many other top leaders of AL have been arrested and detained on false charges for months together without allowing bail petition under special power act. Although Sheikh Hasina instituted Habeas Corpus in high court Bench and was granted bail on 02 August 2007 but on an unusual appeal by the government to the Supreme Court, the High Court order of granting bail has been stayed with a motive to delay and denial of process of justice.
The above facts clearly prove the double standard attitude of this government which can not establish the desired level of secular democracy in Bangladesh but to pave the way to army rule in disguise of civilian rule like Pakistan. Such situation in near future will put Bangladesh in the hand of fundamentalist terrorist like Tale ban of Afganistan.
The adviser Mr. Mainul Hossain on 27 August 2007 in press conference has categorically disclosed that this government is not a care taker government as per constitution. It is army backed national government though there is no provision of national government in the constitution. This clearly proves that an unconstitutional army government under civilian disguise is running the government.
The restriction on political activities, massive arrest of top leaders of secular democratic political parties, not taking actions against the fundamentalist political leaders and their militant terrorist associates, Bangladesh is going to become a safe heaven of fundamentalist terrorist activist. Within near future that terrorist activist will expand their activities not only within Bangladesh territory but also to the neighboring country especially in India. Already the symptom of their activities has been surfaced in Hyderabad of India. The government of Bangladesh has issued a circular on 12 August 2007 from Home Ministry Memo no (Pol-2)/Report/43-2007/92 with direction to all senior government officials to be cautious in their movement because the fundamentalist terrorist may kidnap them as a ransom to force the government to free their arrested leaders from the jail custody who were arrested by the last government.
One Zaved Iqbal, a fundamentalist terrorist was convicted for 20 years for throwing bomb inside chittagong court on 03 October 2005. He is facing trial in another bomb throwing case. On 28 August 2007 he, on the trial dock in the same Chittagong court has threatened that his other associates are well trained and very active to re-organize themselves for further massive attack in order to capture state power like Tale ban of Afganistan.
To save Bangladesh from the threat of Fundamentalist terrorist and stop their expansion in to neighboring countries, democratic political activities must have to be restored immediately and hand over power to the people representatives through early election. There is no valid ground to delay election under the trap of prolonging process of Photo-voter list and national identity card. The existing voter list can be updated as was directed by Supreme Court. Voter list updating will require maximum 2 months. So, election can easily be held within January or February of 2008.
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