Shakhawat Liton
The Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict and Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) probe report will decide the fate of three MPs-elect as two of them contested Monday’s national election following an interim SC order and the other is an alleged loan defaulter.
The lawmakers-elect might lose membership of parliament if the court verdict and probe report go against them, electoral experts said referring to electoral laws.
One of them — AKM Maidul Islam– was elected on Jatiya Party (JP) nomination from Kurigram-3 constituency. He had reportedly concealed information about defaulted bank loan, and against whom Sonali Bank complained to the Election Commission (EC) seeking justice.
The other two –Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir and Shafiqul Azam Khan– were elected on Awami League (AL) ticket from Chandpur-1 and Jhenidah-3 respectively as the interim SC order entitled them to contest the election.
The EC on Wednesday asked the BB to probe the allegation against Maidul that he concealed information about defaulted loan in his nomination paper for contesting the election, sources said.
In a letter to the central bank governor, the commission asked for sending the probe report in seven days.
Sonali Bank also filed a case with the Money Loan Court against Maidul for defaulting loan of Tk 23.58 crore. The case is pending with the court, sources said.
The bank had also complained to the Returning Officer (RO) during scrutiny of nomination papers but the RO did not entertain the complaint, sources said.
As per the Representation of the People Order (RPO), an individual having defaulted loan is not eligible to contest the election. If he is proved guilty of concealing information about his defaulted loan, his membership of parliament might be cancelled, electoral law experts noted.
And Alamgir was not eligible to contest the poll since he was convicted under the emergency powers rules, which barred convicts from electoral race.
During scrutiny, the RO had cancelled Alamgir’s nomination paper, and he filed an appeal with the EC challenging the RO’s decision.
The EC rejected Alamgir’s appeal but the AL leader got back his candidacy on an interim court order.
Similarly, Shafiqul was ineligible to contest the poll as per an EC decision, which was upheld by the High Court.
In its decision, the EC said mayors of city corporations and municipalities are not eligible to contest parliamentary election unless they resign from the posts before filing nomination papers since the posts are deemed as office of profit.
But responding to an appeal by Dhaka City Corporation Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka, the SC chamber judge stayed the EC’s decision for a few weeks. In such a situation, Shafiqul became eligible to contest the poll.
The EC however has decided to launch a legal battle against the SC’s interim order when the matter comes for final disposal. It has already consulted legal experts in this regard, sources said.
Some others also got back their candidacies following the SC order but lost the poll battle.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
