SM Mizanur Rahman : The regular weekly Cabinet meeting on Monday skipped discussion on the resignation issue of the two ministers, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, said Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Anisul Haque. “It is a matter of morality whether they will stay in power or quit,” the Law Minister told journalists after emerging from the regular weekly Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat on Monday.The two members, who were found guilty of passing contemptuous comments against the Chief Justice, attended the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.Anisul Haque, however, said the two ministers, who were fined by the country’s apex court have neither breached their oath nor violated the Constitution with their comments.Echoing the same, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader also told reporters that there was no discussion regarding the resignation of the two ministers in the Cabinet meeting.However, they said that the high commands of the government were greatly disturbed and embarrassed at the activities of the two ministers.”It is their personal matter whether the two ministers, who were found guilty of passing contemptuous comments against the Chief Justice, will resign or not,” replying to a query he told journalists. Obaidul Quader said the two ministers are talking too much on various issues since they have been made members of the Cabinet. On Sunday, the Supreme Court convicted Qamrul Islam and AKM Mozammel Huq and fined them Tk 50,000 each for their controversial comments about Chief Justice SK Sinha. The ministers will have to suffer seven days’ jail in default to pay the fine, the order said.Later on the same day, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the Cabinet would take a decision about the fate of two ministers who faced contempt of court charges as it is a matter of morality. The court also ordered giving the fine money to Islamia Eye Hospital and Liver Foundation of Bangladesh.On March 15, the SC ordered the two ministers to appear before it on March 20.The day earlier on March 14, ministers Qamrul Islam and Mozammel Huq offered unconditional apology to the court for their remarks. They begged the pardon in separate applications submitted to the SC through their lawyers.On March 8, the Supreme Court summoned the two ministers to appear before it on March 15 for their reactions to remarks of Chief Justice SK Sinha about prosecution as regards the trial of Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali in a war crimes case.Meanwhile, Qamrul Islam and AKM Mozammel Huq told journalists that they would take decision regarding their resignation after getting the full verdict of the apex court.Maintaining all legal proceeding of the court they will go for further step, they said after emerging from the Cabinet meeting. “Maintaining all legal proceeding of the court, I shall take necessary steps through lawyers,” Qamrul Islam said.AKM Mozammel Huq said he will do everything abiding by the law.
