Mirza Fakhrul: CJ forcibly kept out of office

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has alleged that Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha is not ill as the government has claimed and has been forcibly barred from discharging his duties. He raised the allegation when addressing a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters in Dhaka on Wednesday. “The chief justice is not sick; he has been forcibly kept out of office,” Fakhrul said. “Such behaviour with the apex court’s judge demonstrates that the government is troubled and anxious over its existential crisis.” Condemning the “aggressive attitudes” of the government towards the Supreme Court, the top BNP leader said: “We call on people to unite against the government’s move to bring the judiciary under its control by exerting pressure on it and seizing its independence.” Fakhrul said the head of government and ministers, and the ruling Awami League and members of its alliance have been “lambasting the top court and chief justice unconstitutionally and unreasonably” ever since the verdict on the 16th amendment to the constitution was delivered. “The words they used when slamming the court and chief justice in parliament are utterly bizarre,” he said. The BNP secretary general poured scorn on government claims that Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha was relieved of his duties as he is suffering from cancer. “The chief justice has recently travelled abroad. Whether he received any treatment at the time was unknown (but) upon returning home, he resumed office on Sunday, took several important decisions and verified files. Also, he decided to attend a reunion event with judges and lawyers as per the custom,” he said. “But yesterday [Tuesday], the law minister and attorney general told the media all of a sudden that he was suffering from cancer and had therefore applied for leave.” Among others, BNP Standing Committee members Nazrul Islam Khan, Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Gayeswar Chandra Roy and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi were present at Wednesday’s press briefing.The article was first published on Bangla Tribune