Former caretaker government adviser Akbar Ali Khan yesterday questioned the functioning of the judiciary system, going to the extent of saying there is no justice in the country.
“This judiciary system cannot have any meaning for the public when it takes 50 to 100 years to dispose of a case,” he told an open discussion at the National Press Club in the capital. The Humanity Foundation Organised the programme, marking seven years of the country’s separation of judiciary.
“The police have completely gone under political control. The situation will worsen if necessary steps are not taken immediately, a commission is not formed and the relevant law not amended in this regard. The separation of judiciary is not enough and so necessary changes must be brought about in the police system as well,” he said.
Like Akbar, most speakers said they did not find any significant change in the country’s judiciary system, which may help get justice in due time. They also said the executive machinery’s interference still prevails and it must be stopped to ensure an independent judiciary.
“Established by the British for controlling police, the magistracy system had existed before the judiciary was separated, but the British system system still exists. Now there is no country in the world where the judiciary can fully control police,” said former caretaker government adviser Akbar.
He also said: “The British introduced the legal system in the country, which is very unfortunately faulty. They introduced their common law system here, but the conditions which are necessary to apply it does not exist here. If we want to make our judiciary effective, we need to look at CRPC [Code of Criminal Procedure], evidence act and police act newly and have to apply new thoughts and concept regarding this.”
The former caretaker government adviser criticised the separation of judiciary only by amending the Constitution, not in reality as he said: “It would be very unfortunate if we think that we can change the judiciary system only by constitutional amendment rather than change the entire system fully.”
He said, “according to the annual police report, charges were pressed and criminals were convicted in about 23-24 percent of cases. But the statistics did not include any case list where not even 10 percent were convicted. In this situation, the country is becoming a safe haven of miscreants.”
Akbar said: “The main thing is: there are lots of obstacles but it needs the guts to overcome them. We saw in the British period that the government judges and officials did not obey the higher authority instruction. Even in the Pakistan period, judges of the lower court did not grant bail. Justice was found in the upper court in most of the political cases. But now, there is no difference between lower court and upper court.”
Former Supreme Court judge Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, former Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, former Supreme Court Registrar Iktedar Ahmed, among others, spoke at the discussion.
Bangla daily the Prothom Alo’s Joint Editor Mizanur Rahman Khan presented the keynote there at the discussion while Editor of “Shaptahik” moderated the programme.
