Bangladesh Bar Council has announced a countrywide court boycott programme for tomorrow (Monday), demanding cancellation of the latest amendment to the Constitution.Leaders of the Bar Council announced it in a view-exchange meeting held in the auditorium of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in the city on Saturday. More than 100 leaders of Ainjibi Samities across the country joined the meeting. The Bar Council leaders also decided to stage black-flag demonstrations on all the court premises of the country on Sunday. Mahbub Uddin Khokon, a member of the Bar Council, a statutory autonomous body, which is dominated by pro-BNP lawyers, proposed the agitation programme which was later endorsed by Bar Association leaders through voice vote at the SCBA auditorium.At the meeting, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, also SCBA Secretary, demanded annulment of the amendment brought to the Constitution’s section Article 96, empowering the parliament to impeach Supreme Court (SC) judges for misbehaviour and incapacity.Speaking at the meeting, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Vice-Chairman of Bar Council said, “The independence of the judiciary now under threat following the amendment of the Constitution and the government did so to perpetuate power.”He alleged that the amendment was brought “illegally and immorally” to empower the Parliament to impeach judges at a time when the legitimacy of it is under question mark. “The Parliament was formed through a “voter-less January 5 election” and this Parliament has no right to amend the Constitution,” he said. Khandaker Mahbub Hossain commented that now the judges of the higher court would become the ‘political pawn,’ and will go into the hands of the government. “From now on, the judges of the higher court will remain under political pressure and such a pressure might create impediment to discharging their duties independently,” he added. On Wednesday, the 16th Constitutional amendment bill was passed empowering the Parliament to remove the SC judges, rejecting all calls for soliciting public opinion and bringing some changes to the bill.
