Bangladesh's military backed care taker government has no immediate plans for lifting the state of emergency. While talking to local media, the Law Adviser Mainul Hosein on Tuesday hinted that emergency was not going to be lifted before a new parliament was elected.

“Proper condition has yet been created for lifting of emergency”, the law adviser said while talking to reporters after a meeting on smuggling held at the home ministry yesterday.

In reply to a question, Mainul said the provision for ending emergency after 120 days is not applicable in the current circumstances as many things in the constitution has already been changed during the tenure of present caretaker government.

“After lifting emergency to whom will we hand over power as there is no parliament now”, he added.

It is to be noted that, the military backed caretaker government enacted  state of emergency on January 11 amid a bitter political rival Khaleda Zia's BNP and Sheikh Hasina's Awami League threw the country into chaos  prior to Janary 2007 general elections, which never took place.

According to Bangladesh's constitution, a Proclamation of Emergency shall cease to be effective at the expiry of 120 days, unless before the expiry of that period it has been approved by a resolution of Parliament.

Asked about how did the leaders and activists of Awami League bring out street procession to welcome Sheikh Hasina who returned home after 51 days, Mainul didn’t make any comment.

About imposing the state of emergency in the country, the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, Don McKinnon, on March 21 at a press briefing in Dhaka said that Bangladesh’s state of emergency should be lifted without unnecessary delay because, if prolonged unreasonably, it may cause rapid decline of people’s support for the interim administration.  

Talking about the meeting of the National Committee on Prevention of Smuggling, the law adviser said the godfathers of smugglers would not be spared. He observed that those caught in connection with smuggling are basically carriers.




© The Bangladesh Journal

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