The cabinet on Monday approved a draft bill seeking to amend the Representation of the People Order stipulating a new provision to debar anyone convicted under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, from contesting parliamentary elections.
The legislative and parliamentary affairs division placed the draft bill in the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by prime minister Sheikh Hasina at the secretariat.
The proposed amendment seeks to disqualify from contesting parliamentary polls anyone convicted of any crime under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told a press briefing.
Asked what would happen to convicts whose appeals are pending in the Appellate Division, he said the issue required legal explanation since it was not written in the draft bill.
The chief election commissioner, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, on Thursday said the Election Commission had proposed the amendment to disqualify the convicts from contesting polls.
Though the existing RPO does not allow the war criminals to contest the polls, it has not specified the status of the conviction under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, according to an EC official.
‘The words “war criminal” do not cover all the crimes under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 and that is why new proposals have been made,’ the official added.
In the draft law the words ‘war criminals’ would be replaced by ‘of any crime under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973.
The cabinet on September 2 endorsed another bill that proposed stripping convicted collaborators and war criminals of their voting rights.
Once the Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Bill becomes a law those convicted under the Collaborators’ Tribunal Order 1972 or the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 would lose their right to vote.
A total of five Jamaat-e-Islami leaders along with a former leader of the party have so far been convicted of war crimes charges by the tribunals. All the five, including former Jamaat amir Ghulam Azam, Abdul Quader Molla, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, appealed against their convictions. Former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad, better known as Bachchu Razakar, had lost his right to appeal as he is a fugitive.
-With New Age input
