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Bangladesh parliament accused of move towards one-party rule

Cabinet asserts power to impeach judges
Bangladesh parliament accused of move towards one-party rule
Published: August 19, 2014 07:49 AM GMT
Updated: August 18, 2014 09:31 PM GMT

Bangladesh's cabinet announced on Monday that it has voted to give parliament the power to sack Supreme Court judges.  

The move, which will require an amendment to the constitution, was approved in a cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday.

"The proposed act empowers parliament to remove judges of the Supreme Court," cabinet secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told AFP.

Bangladesh's original post-independence constitution in 1972 allowed parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges, but the power was later transferred to a Supreme Judicial Council.

Bhuiyan said the change, which is all but certain to be approved in parliament, would make the judiciary accountable to lawmakers and "enhance its credibility".

But the move has drawn criticism from various quarters, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which said the law would jeopardise the independence of the judiciary and pave the way for "one-party rule".

Badiul Alam Majumder, president of Dhaka-based civil rights group Citizens for Good Governance, called the move to return to the 1972 law “dishonest”.

He said that the government had passed up an opportunity to restore the law in 2011, instead opting to leave the Supreme Judicial Council intact. “Their intention [with the current proposal] is to control the judiciary,” he said, “which would curtail its independence and harm public interests”.

Supreme Court lawyer Fauzia Karim said the move will have a huge impact on public opinion about judgments.

“Our parliamentary system is not itself fully accountable to the people, so we can’t expect parliament to make the judiciary accountable,” she said.

“Once the system is back, people will start analyzing court decisions and verdicts along political lines. This will ultimately lead people to lose confidence in the judicial system.”

The Awami League government is expected to pass the bill without obstruction, since the controversial general election in Januarywhich  saw the party and its allies win all the seats amid an opposition boycott.

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