EC moves to strip SQ Chy of MP status

Sends letter to speaker today over violation of electoral laws; membership of 3 others at risk
The Election Commission (EC) will ask Parliament Secretariat today to scrap the membership of BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for suppressing educational information while seeking candidacy for the December 29 national election.
“Salauddin Quader Chowdhury cannot continue as a member of parliament since it is proved that he provided false [educational] information in his affidavit [thus violating electoral laws],” Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said yesterday.
The EC will send a letter to the Parliament Secretariat today, asking it to inform the speaker about the matter, and “the speaker will make decision on it”, he told reporters on the EC Secretariat premises.
This stance of the EC will also affect the membership of Jatiya Party lawmaker Ruhul Amin Hawlader.
Membership of two other lawmakers are also at risk as a Supreme Court verdict declared mayors of city corporations and municipalities disqualified from being elected lawmakers, officials of EC Secretariat said.
Talking to reporters via phone from Singapore yesterday, Salauddin claimed he had not given any false information about his educational qualifications in the affidavit to the EC.
He said he had stated in his affidavit that he had no educational qualifications. Now it is up to the EC to prove what is wrong with that.
The senior BNP lawmaker left Dhaka on Monday for medical treatment in Singapore, one of his personal staff told The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, Ruhul Amin has challenged the legality of a letter of the EC dated April 13 that asked him to submit documents of his educational qualifications to the High Court by May 31. The commission has decided to contest the case, EC Secretariat sources said.
The two other lawmakers–Ruhul’s wife and Jatiya Party MP Nasrin Jahan Ratna and Awami League MP Shafiqul Azam Khan Chanchal–have been disqualified from remaining parliament members as they were elected mayors of two municipalities.
The Appellate Division recently dismissed a civil miscellaneous petition against an HC verdict that declared disqualified mayors of city corporations and municipalities from being elected lawmakers, describing their posts as “office of profit”.
But Maheshpur municipality Mayor Chanchal contested the parliamentary polls and was elected an MP as the chamber judge of the Appellate Division stayed the effectiveness of the HC verdict at that time.
Ratna–mayor of Bakerganj municipality–was also elected to a women’s reserved seat in parliament by obtaining a stay order from the High Court against the EC decision that declared her disqualified.
Officials at the EC Secretariat said Dhaka City Corporation Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who filed the civil miscellaneous petition and obtained a stay order against the HC verdict, was asked to file a regular leave-to-appeal within a specific period.
Chanchal, who was initially not allowed to contest the parliamentary poll, was finally given permission subject to the decision of Khoka’s petition, they added.
Later, the Supreme Court extended the timeframe for filing the regular leave-to-appeal petition on several occasions. But Khoka, who lost in the parliamentary poll, did not file any.
Finally, the Appellate Division dismissed his petition, which brought the HC verdict back in effect, the officials said.
On May 6, 2009, the office of registrar of the Supreme Court sent an office order to the EC Secretariat, saying the period of time to file regular leave-to-appeal against the HC verdict had expired but no step was taken. The registrar office also said on March 25 the Appellate Division extended the timeframe again for four weeks after which the petition will be dismissed.
On May 28, Zakir Hossain, a citizen of Maheshpur of Jhenidah district, filed a petition with Speaker Abdul Hamid, requesting him to send the matter to the EC to settle if Chanchal can remain an MP. He sent a copy of the petition to the EC.
Meanwhile, the EC has decided to contest the case filed by Jatiya Party MP Nasrin Jahan Ratna, officials at the EC Secretariat said.
CASE OF SQ CHOWDHURY
Salauddin Quader Chowdhury did not submit an attested copy of the certificate of his highest educational qualification to the EC along with his application for candidacy in the December 29 parliamentary polls. But the returning officer accepted his nomination paper.
Salauddin’s rival candidate filed an appeal with the EC, challenging the returning officer’s decision.
However, during the hearing the EC rejected the appeal on Salauddin’s verbal assurance of submitting the required documents soon. But as Salauddin did not do so, the EC in a letter dated April 13 asked him to submit the documents to the commission by May 31. But the BNP lawmaker did not respond to the EC.
The commission then collected information on Salauddin’s educational qualifications from the books containing biographies of lawmakers of different parliaments kept at the Parliament Secretariat and found inconsistencies there.
According to the book on the second parliament, Salauddin passed SSC examination from St Placid’s High School, Chittagong in 1965. But the books for the seventh and eighth parliaments say he passed matriculation from Sadek Public School of Punjab, Pakistan.
The book for the second parliament says Salauddin studied Bar at Law at Lincoln’s Inn in London in 1973 but the book for the eighth parliament says he studied law at the University of London.
The Parliament Secretariat collected bio-data of lawmakers through a prescribed form for the December 29 polls. Interestingly, in the column for educational qualification in his affidavit, Salauddin wrote he did not have any educational qualification.

Courtesy of The Daily Star