Using judiciay to control politics a dangerous culture: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday termed ‘unprecedented’ the court injunction on holding the council of their party’s student body Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), and accused the government of controlling politic ‘using the judiciary’.

“The current government has introduced a new political culture of regulating politics through court. It’s a very dangerous culture, I think,” he said.

Fakhrul came up with the comments while talking to reporters after a meeting with party standing committee members and pro-BNP lawyers at its chairperson’s Gulshan office, reports UNB.

He said it is regrettable that the government has been ‘using’ the court for the last 10 years to make its political gains. “They annulled the caretaker government system by using the court putting the nation and country into an uncertainty.”

The BNP leader said the government also enacted various ‘black laws’ using the judiciary and snatched people’s democratic rights.

“You witnessed during the last (general) election that the candidatures of many people and city cooperation mayors and upazila chairmen were cancelled. The way they’re making the court questionable and politicising the judiciary, it won’t bring anything good for the country,” he observed.

Fakhrul said JCD wanted to elect its future leadership through a council following the democratic process, but it has been obstructed. “You’re stopping the activities of a political party which is unprecedented.”

He claimed that necessary preparations for holding the JCD council after dissolving its previous committee were taken lawfully.

“Our acting chairman took the decision regarding the Chhatra Dal’s council and dissolution of its committee. As per our party constitution, the acting chairman has the authority to take such a decision and it’s legal. What steps we’ve so far taken about JCD are lawful,” Fakhrul said.

He said the JCD will now take the next step regarding its council reviewing the court order. “BNP has no involvement in it.”

The BNP leader, however, said their party will give a reply to the show-cause notice issued by the court. “We’ll present our reply before the court in due time. But Chhatra Dal will take the decision about what they need to do now.”

He said the court order is mysterious as it issued the injunction silently on Thursday evening. “It can be understood that there’s a direct interference of the government in the matter.”

Fakhrul also alleged that the government does not want to keep the minimum democratic space in the country as it is ‘not’ elected with people’s votes.

BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Jamiruddin Sircar, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Nazrul Islam Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, and senior pro-BNP lawyers, including Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali, Mahbubuddin Khokon, Masud Ahmed Talukder and Kaiser Kamal were, among others, present at the meeting.

On Thursday, a Dhaka court issued an ad interim injunction on holding the council of JCD which was scheduled to be held on Saturday.

The court passed the order as JCD’s ex-assistant religious affairs secretary Md Aman Ullah Aman filed a case seeking a permanent injunction on holding the council.

The lower court also asked the BNP secretary general and nine other party leaders to appear before it and submit a written objection to the injunction order in the next seven days.