The High Court has issued a rule on authorities asking why it should not order the removal of Nizam Uddin Hazari from Parliament. The Feni-2 MP is already in trouble for his alleged ties to the killing of Phulgazi Upazila Chairman Ekramul Haque. Justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar gave the order on Sunday following a writ petition which said Hazari hid information in his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the January general election. The judges also asked under what authority Hazari was still an MP. The court asked the Speaker, law, Parliament Secretariat, Election Commission and home secretaries,by the chief election commissioner, the MP in question, inspector general of prisons, and Chittagong’s senior jailor to answer to the rule in four weeks. Phulgazi Upazila Juba League’s former joint convenor Shawkat Hossain Bhuuiyan filed the plea. Former Feni-2 MP Joynal Hazari has claimed that Ekram was murdered as he had disclosed Hazari’s efforts to hide information. Nizam Hazari has been denying accusations by Awami League activists that he had a hand in Ekram’s murder. Ekram, also the president of Awami League’s Phulgazi unit, was killed in a daylight attack at Feni Sadar on May 20. Armed assailants blocked his car, opened fire on the vehicle and set it ablaze with the chairman trapped inside. Hazari, a first-time MP, has allegedly got out of jail before the completion of a sentence in an arms case and hidden information in his affidavit to the EC. The High Court has ordered the inspector general of prisons and the Chittagong prison authorities to submit documents on the execution of Nizam’s jail sentence within 30 days. Bangla daily ‘Prothom Alo’ ran a report on May 10 on the MP getting out of jail before his sentence was complete. The article was submitted along with the petition. Plaintiff’s lawyer Manzill Murshid told journalists that if the report were true, then Hazari could no longer be an MP. According to the report, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in an arms case but he got out two years and ten months before serving out his full term. A Chittagong court on Aug 16, 2000 sentenced Nizam to 17 years in jail under two sections of the Arms Act. But the Feni district Awami League chief walked out of jail on Dec 1, 2005 before serving a total of 10 years in prison (before and after the verdict) as per rule. —bdnews24.com
