Both the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP have engaged in a heated exchange of words over the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) polls.
Information and Broadcasting Minister and Awami League Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud Thursday said that the pro-BNP lawyers have snatched ballot boxes during the polling, sensing their defeat in the SCBA polls.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on the other hand, alleged that the government broke the election system of the apex court lawyers' body. He said that a serious scandalous incident took place over the annual elections.
Earlier, a section of pro-BNP lawyers highlighted the police action on them on the premises of the SCBA before a full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
At least ten journalists and lawyers were injured when police charged batons on them at the Supreme Court premises amid a scuffle between pro-Awami League and pro-BNP lawyers over the SCBA election on Wednesday.
The two-day voting at the SCBA election commenced around 10am but it was suspended immediately when some pro-BNP lawyers staged demonstrations demanding the formation of an election conducting committee led by a neutral person.
In another development, one of the presidential candidates in the SCBA polls, Yunus Ali, filed a writ with the High Court Thursday seeking suspension of voting.
Speaking at a discussion Thursday, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: “The lawyers of the apex court of the country are called officers of the court. Holding the annual election of those who work in that court or cooperate in the judicial system is a tradition and everyone respects it. But what happened yesterday (Wednesday) in that election is a most stigmatized and disgraceful incident for the nation and the judicial system of the country.”
He added that the untoward incident over the SCBA election has exposed the fact that there is no democracy and rule of law in Bangladesh. “I also doubt whether there is any government in the country.”
Meanwhile, Dr Hasan Mahmud told a discussion in the capital that the pro-BNP lawyers have blackened the history of the Supreme Court “through carrying out destructive activities to halt the election”.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin Thursday said the Chief Justice has nothing to do with the situation created over the SCBA election.
"The Chief Justice has said it is not our matter. It is the bar's (lawyers' association) matter. Senior lawyers of the bar association should sit for discussions to resolve the problem," he told reporters after a meeting with Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
"The BNP supporters raise demands for re-election. But the election is going on smoothly and hundreds of lawyers are casting their votes standing in queues," he added.
