Staff Reporter :
Laying emphasis on check and balance of power between the President and the Prime Minister, the Udbignya Nagorik Samaj, a platform of country’s senior citizens, has urged the government to form ‘Constitution reform Commission for the sake of democracy” in an emergency basis.
The civil society members also gave importance to making the democratic institutions more active and functional.
They came up with the observations at a round table meeting titled, ‘Check and balance of power for total democracy’ held at BRAC Centre in the city on Tuesday.
“We have gained an experience during the regimes of past four governments that the governments after sworn in power did not pay attention to democratic institutions.” ATM Shamsul Huda, former Chief Election Commissioner and convenor of the organisation, said.
Instead, all these governments had given priority to go to power by any means, he also said.
Raising question about the supremacy of President, former adviser to the caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan said, “When the functions of President depend on the consent of Prime Minister, what result will it bring by giving him [President] the power of appointing Chief Justice?”
“Although as per Constitution, the President is the sole authority to appoint the Chief Justice, in practical he has to depend on Prime Minister before exercising the power,” he said.
Eminent political scientist professor Rawnak Jahan said, “Our experience says that the constitutional organisations did not apply their legitimate power properly in last 24 years. The opposition party also did not play its desired role in the National Parliament.
“It is the national demand to handover power through a credible election with the participation of all political parties. But it’s a big question whether the next election will be held in such way,” Muhammad Zahangir said. Secretary of Sushashoner Jonno Nagarik [SUJAN] Badiul Alam Majumdar said, “Several politicians think none but the politicians only have the right to talk about politics or democracy….But it will not be possible to maintain check and balance, if there is no amendment in the Constitution along with active role of constitutional organizations.”
“The existing system in the Constitution as well as democracy are not working at all. The Prime Minister is equipped with absolute power in the Constitution,” Mizanur Rahman Khan, Joint Editor of Protham Alo, said.
Expressing frustration, local government expert Tofail Ahmed said that the power of deputy Commissioners is almost like the kings or royal representatives.
“One Deputy Commissioner has 620 commands. He is the president of 200 committees. Similarly, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer also exercises 38 types of power. They show more interest in running mobile courts. Usually, they give priority to it [mobile court] than other task,” he noted.
On the other hand, Executive Director of South Asian Legal Institute Manzoor Hasan in his speech laid emphasis on empowerment of President.
Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute Ahsan H Mansur and Executive Director of Mass Literacy Programme Rasheda K Chowdhury, among others, were present at the discussion.
