City life almost normal on hartal

City life seems almost normal at the early hours of hartal on Monday enforced by BNP-led 20-party alliance, across the country.

The shutdown began at 6am and it will be end at 6pm on Monday.

Vehicular movement is normal in the capital city. No unpleasant incident is yet to reported till filling of this story at 8:15am.

Witnesses said a good number of passenger vehicles were plying on different routes carrying mainly the office-goers in the morning.

Students were also seen heading towards educational institutions defying the hartal call.

No picketing was seen in the city roads in the first two hours of the hartal.

The opposition alliance enforced the nationwide general strike protesting the 16th amendment of the constitution that empowered the parliament to impeach judges.

BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the hartal announcement at the party’s Gulshan office on Saturday.

Earlier, one of the key allies of the coalition Jamaat-e-Islami observed a 24-hour shutdown on Sunday.

The much-talked-about 16th amendment drew wide criticism from the opposition and other civil society groups who cited it would hurt the independence of judges, hence hamper rule of law.

Earlier on September 17, the parliament got back the power to impeach judges through passing the 16th amendment bill in the third session of the tenth parliament.

The bill was passed in the House in 327-0 votes as per recommendation of the concerned parliamentary standing committee.

The government amended the constitution with a view to restoring the 1972 constitution.

Source: Dhaka Tribune