Staff Reporter :
The controversial comments by two cabinet ministers in the past few days over Chief Justice Surendra. Kumar Sinha’s (S K Sinha) open court remarks on the poor quality of investigation and prosecution materials drew sharp rebuttal on Monday’s cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made angry reaction on the ministers’ comments in unscheduled discussion at the meeting saying the government would disown liability of any such remarks.
Without mentioning the names of the ministers, the prime minister said that the remarks made by the two ministers at a programme outwardly appeared to be statements of the government and it is embarrassing, she observed.
“Make any comment as private person in the streets if you like but keep away from the government and not use the government name while making such distorted and controversial points,” she advised the ministers. “Such comments of the ministers embarrassed me and my government. I would like to make my stand clear that the two ministers’ remarks on Judiciary and the chief justice are not government’s position,” she was quoted by a source as saying at the regular cabinet meeting held at the secretariat in city.
Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, who criticised the chief justice at a roundtable discussion organized by Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee in city on Saturday, were also present in the cabinet meeting.
The two ministers criticised the Chief Justice for his reported remarks that the prosecution is ‘doing politics with the trial of condemned Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali’. They also demanded rehearing of the appeal filed by Mir Quasem Ali by excluding the chief justice from the five-member bench of the Appellate Division.
The Prime Minister said it seemed to her that the two ministers were addressing a government-sponsored programme and those were her government’s stance giving wrong impression to the public. “If anyone wants to deliver such speech go to the road and do so. Being a cabinet member you can’t say whatever you like. It is not fair,” the Prime Minister was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, a lawyer of the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday served a legal notice on two ministers asking them to explain their comments about the Chief Justice and war criminal Mir Quasem Ali’s appeal.S M Zulfiqure Ali sent the notice to Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque urging them to explanation in writing their stance within 24 hours.
In the notice, Zulfiqure Ali asked the ministers to explain as to why their March 5 comments about the CJ and a sub judice matter should not be declared illegal, unconstitutional and considered as offence tantamount to contempt of court.
If the two ministers do not make any explanation in 24 hours, he will file a writ petition with the High Court seeking necessary orders on them, said the SC lawyer.
