Ali Riaz: Consensus Reached on Two Issues Over Chief Justice Appointment
National Consensus Commission Vice Chairman Professor Ali Riaz said the political parties participated in today’s discussion has reached consensus on two issues regarding appointment of Chief Justice. The issues are: amending the current provision under Article 95 of the Constitution and requiring the President to appoint the Chief Justice from among the judges serving in the Appellate Division. While briefing reporters at the end of the 11th day of the second phase of dialogue between the National Consensus Commission and political parties at the Foreign Service Academy, he said that under the current Constitution, there is no obligation for the President to follow such a guideline in appointing the Chief Justice. However, he said that two different views exist regarding whether the most senior judge should be appointed as Chief Justice, or if the appointment should be made from among the two most senior judges. The commission has decided to continue discussions on this matter, he added. Commission members included Justice Md. Emdadul Haque, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar, Safar Raj Hossain, and Dr. Md. Ayub Miah, and the Chief Adviser’s Special Assistant Monir Haider were present.
Ali Riaz said during the July 7 discussion on the issue of declaring a state of emergency, consensus was reached on two points: Amending Article 141(A) of the Constitution, and ensuring that the declaration of a state of emergency is not misused as a political tool. He said that in today’s discussion, specific proposals were put forward to remove the provision allowing the declaration of a state of emergency on the grounds of “internal disturbance” under Article 141(A), and to replace the requirement of the Prime Minister’s signature with approval from the cabinet. He continued that the commission and political parties agreed that this issue needs to be defined more clearly, adding, “Additional elements that can be included will become clearer in the discussions scheduled for next week”. Referring to today’s discussions on two proposals related to the caretaker government, the Vice Chairman of the commission said that all political parties wish to establish a system that is as flawless as possible.
He noted that further discussion is still required on this matter. Representatives from 30 political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party (NCP), Gano Odhikar Parishad, Gonosanghati Andolon, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Biplobi Workers Party, and Amar Bangladesh (AB) Party.
