| Submit your comments on this article |
| Bangladesh |
| Petition To Ban Jamaat: HC set to hear 4-yr-old plea |
| 2013-03-06 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] The High Court may decide about legitimacy of Jamaat-e Islami as it is expected to settle soon a four-year-old petition filed over legality of the party's registration. Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain yesterday formed an HC bench comprised of Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque to dispose of the petition. The chief justice constituted the bench as the petitioners' counsel Barrister Tania Amir on February 18 submitted an application to his office to that end. The petition will now come up in the cause list of the bench, which would fix a date for hearing the matter, Tania Amir told The Daily Star yesterday. Following the writ petition, the HC in January 2009 asked the government, the Election Commission and Jamaat to explain why the party's registration with the EC should not be declared illegal. Sources in the HC said neither the EC nor Jamaat has replied to the rule so far. Tania Amir yesterday said if the HC endorsed the petition through hearing, activities of Jamaat would be severely limited and the party would not be allowed to contest an election. Besides, Jamaat would not be entitled to get police protection for conducting any meeting and enforcing hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... , she added. She said the demand of the time was to ban Jamaat as a terrorist outfit which the government could do under the Anti-Terrorist Act, 2009 by following legal procedures. Section 18 of the Act says, "For the purpose of this Act the government shall have the power to prohibit by order or incorporating in schedule, any organization or reasonable basis of involvement in terrorist activities." Jamaat has recently undertaken a series of terrorist acts in a systematic manner including burning the national flag, attacks on the Shaheed Minar and journalists and violent activities in front of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, Tania observed. Jamaat's lawyer Tajul Islam said they would make a reply to the rule over legality of the party's registration before the HC during hearing. |
| Posted by:Fred |