The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has instructed BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to explain, in writing, his recent comment on the judiciary.
The five-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha issued the order yesterday during the hearing of the BNP leader’s plea against the High Court’s “bail for limited time” order issued for him.
Mirza Fakhrul, during a meeting of BNP’s Sylhet unit on February 7, said the government was trying to control the judiciary. He claimed that there was no democracy in the country, nor an independent judiciary.
He further said murder, enforced disappearance and abduction had been on sharp rise since the government took the office by force. The court fixed February 22 for the submission of the written explanation.
Mirza Fakhrul was at the Supreme Court for the hearing of his leave-to-appeal petition against the High Court ruling on his bail plea.
The High Court on November 24 granted three months’ bail to Mirza Fakhrul in three cases of violence, filed on January 4, 5 and 6 last year, accusing him and several other party leaders and activists of vandalising and torching vehicles in the capital.
Fakhrul then filed the leave-to-appeal petition with the chamber judge of the Supreme Court, who forwarded the petition to a regular appeals bench for hearing, which was held yesterday.
Additional Attorney General Murad Reza said the court fixed February 22 for the next hearing on the petition.
But Fakhrul’s lawyer Sagir Hossain Leon said the hearing on the bail plea was concluded and the court kept its order pending.
