The Bangladesh Journal - Bangladesh government looks at ways to expand advisory council

After more than 3 months into the power, and with vitually no immediate time frame to step down, the military backed care taker government of Bangladesh is now contemplating the expansion of size of its advisory council to manage increasing work load.

Adviser for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Mainul Hosein thinks that the caretaker government needs to discuss about the matter with the constitutional experts since there is a constitutional bar in this regard.

However, constitutional experts said there is no impediment to expand the size of the advisory council of the caretaker government.

They also suggested that the government should seek opinion of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in this regard.

After the announcement of State of Emergency on January 12 last by President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, the present caretaker government headed by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed was formed on the following day.

The caretaker government, having a 10-member advisory council headed by the Chief Adviser, has been running the country over more than last three and half months. Apart from working for the principal objective of holding the next parliamentary elections in

a free, fair and peaceful manner by the end of 2008, the Chief Adviser and 10 advisers have been carrying out the responsibilities of 38 ministries of the government. Each of the advisers has been performing the responsibilities of three to five ministries. As a

result, workload on the advisers has increased manifold.

Law Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein told reporters that they had discussed the matter at the advisory council meeting.

Barrister Mainul said that so much problems were created in such a way that it had almost become almost impossible to run the affairs of the caretaker government with 10 to 20 advisers.

“Crises have been created at different levels in such a manner that it has become extremely difficult for the caretaker government to solve those crises,” he said. “That is why we are contemplating the expansion of the size of the advisory council.”

The Law Adviser, however, pointed out that any move to expand the size of advisory council was not an easy thing, because the matter is directly related to the constitution.

“There are constitutional limitations about the expansion of the size of advisory council of the caretaker government,” he said.

Barrister Mainul said they would seek opinion of senior lawyers and reference of the Supreme Court in this regard.

However, senior lawyers of the country opined that it would not be difficult for the caretaker government to expand the size of the advisory council.

Dr M Zahir said the President would have to refer the matter to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court about whether it would be possible to expand the size of the advisory council as the constitution has restricted the number of advisers to ten.

On the other hand, Barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud said if the caretaker government intends to expand the size of advisory council it can do so by giving appointments to individuals in different names other than advisers. In that case, no question will arise at all

about the violation of constitution.

Besides, the President can seek the opinion of the Supreme Court to raise the number of advisers in the advisory council.