The High Court on Thursday declared illegal and unconstitutional Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration with the Election Commission as a political party. A three-member special bench of Justice M Moazzam Husain, Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque, by a majority view, declared illegal and void the registration given to Jamaat-e-Islami by the Election Commission.
‘By a majority view the rule [issued in response to a writ petition against Jamaat’s registration] is
made absolute,’ said the operative part of the verdict in two sentences.
The presiding judge, Justice M Moazzam Husain, read out the verdict around 2:30pm half an hour before the end of the court hours amid tight security.
The same bench on June 12, after completion of the hearing in the writ petitions, had reserved the pronouncement of the judgment for a later date.
Justice Moazzam Husain said the verdict was delayed as they needed time to take the decision.
The court will go for annual vacation on July 2 and resume on September 15.
The chief election commissioner, Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, said the commission would ‘execute the court verdict shortly after it gets the certified copy of the ruling that had declared the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami illegal.
‘Let us get the certified copy of the verdict first. We will take a decision after scrutinising the verdict,’ Rakib told waiting reporters who asked when the EC was going to cancel Jamaat’s registration.
He said the commission would decide whether Jamaat would get a chance to contest the next polls only after knowing what the court verdict said.
However, Election Commission lawyer Mohsin Rashid told reporters that Jamaat’s registration with the commission stood cancelled after the verdict.
He said after the ruling, Jamaat would not be able to contest the next general elections with its election symbol ‘scales’, Mohsin said.
Jamaat attorney Abdur Razzaq at a hurriedly called briefing told reporters that the party’s acting secretary general Mohammad Rafiqul Islam Khan had already filed an appeal with the Appellate Division challenging the High Court ruling and sought an order of stay on the verdict.
He said he along with other senior counsels had moved the appeal with the Appellate Division chamber judge, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, who refused to hear it as the court hours were over.
Razzaq, also an assistant secretary general of Jamaat, said that the matter would be disposed of finally by the Appellate Division after the annual vacation of the court would be over on September 15.
In his instant reaction to the HC verdict, state minister for law Quamrul Islam told reporters that the government would now initiate a legal process to ban Jamaat at an appropriate time as the International Crimes Tribunals in two or three verdicts had made the same observations.
Jamaat has called nationwide protests on Saturday and a 48-hour shutdown for August 12 and 13.
The ruling Awami League said it was happy with the court ruling while its allies and left leaning parties found it not enough and called for a ban on the Jamaat’s politics.
Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party was silent over the court ruling. None of the senior leaders of the party agreed to speak on the issue.
Security measures were heightened on the Supreme Court premises on the eve of the verdict and only lawyers, journalists and petitioners of the writ were allowed to enter the courtroom after security scanning.
Bangladesh Tariqat Federation secretary general Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, and 24 leaders of the federation, Zaker Party and Sammilita Islami Jote had filed the writ petitions on January 25, 2009
challenging the constitutionality of Jamaat’s registration with the Election Commission on November 4, 2008.
Writ petitioner Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri welcomed the verdict and called for its immediate execution.
Jurist M Amirul Islam said that after the court’s ruling declaring Jamaat’s registration unconstitutional, the Election Commission could take steps necessary to execute the verdict.
After a preliminary hearing on the writ petitions, a High Court bench presided over by Justice ABM Khairul Haque, later chief justice and now retired, had issued a rule on January 27, 2009, asking the commission and the Jamaat to explain why the commission’s decision of November 20, 2008 to register the Jamaat as a political party would not be declared illegal.
During the final hearing, the petitioners’ counsel Tania Amir argued that the commission’s decision to register Jamaat as a political party was illegal as its constitution contradicted Article 90 (c) of the Representation of the People Order 1972, and certain articles of the Constitution of the Republic, including its preamble, and the Proclamation of Independence declared by the
Bangladesh government in exile at Mujibnagar on April 17, 1971.
She argued that Jamaat had no eligibility to be registered as a political party as it did not fulfill the requirements stipulated in Article 90C of the 1972 order.
Article 90C(1)(b), as amended in 2008, stipulates that a political party will not be qualified for registration if its constitution is in any way discriminatory on grounds of religion or gender, Tania said.
A political party cannot qualify for registration, if its name and nomenclature, flag, symbol or any activities threaten to destroy communal harmony in society in an attempt to divide the nation and to distort its constitutional and religious values, Tania contended.
EC lawyer Mohsin Rashid argued that the commission had done nothing wrong by giving temporary registration to Jamaat as a political party on conditions that it would amend in six months its constitution removing the provisions inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic and Article 90 (c) of the 1972 order.
After the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami was banned for its activities during the war of independence.
After the bloody changeover in 1975, Jamaat and some other Islamist parties began functioning under the banner of Islamic Democratic League in 1976 and contested the 1979 general elections of 1979 in which six Jamaat nominees were elected members of parliament.
Jamaat was revived as a political party on May 25, 1979 and secured 10 seats in the parliamentary elections in 1986 polling 4.61 per cent votes.
In the 1991 general elections, Jamaat vied for 35 constituencies and won 18 constituencies polling 12.13 per cent votes.
The party supported the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in forming the government, and thereby secured two out of 30 seats reserved for women in parliament.
When the opposition waged a movement for caretaker government, the Awami League could enlist support of the Jamaat-e-Islami in the campaign but Jamaat won only three seats in the parliamentary elections held on June 12, 1996 with 8.61 per cent votes.
Jamaat afterwards formed an alliance with the BNP and secured 17 seats in the October 1, 2001 elections with 4.29 per cent votes. As a partner of the alliance, two Jamaat leaders were inducted in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet.
In the December 29, 2008 elections, Jamaat won only two seats in parliament.
-With New Age input
