CJ should resign within this month: Qamrul
Ruling Awami League leader and Food Minister advocate Qamrul Islam yesterday demanded the resignation of Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha for giving, what he claimed, irrelevant and objectionable observations in the Appellate Division verdict on the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.
If the Chief Justice himself does not resign from his position within this month, a sturdy street agitation will be forged by lawyers to remove him, from the beginning of the next month, he said, mentioning a well-known proverb that the cat must be killed on the very first night. The ruling party minister came up with the remark at a discussion to mark August 15 National Mourning Day, the assassination day of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, organised by Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad at the Dhaka Ainjibi Samiti Bhaban in the capital.
If he (the Chief Justice) holds any principle and minimum common sense, he should willingly step down from his position soon. You would not be able to stay in your position for long maintaining entente with the anti-liberation forces like the BNP, Qamrul added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the ruling Awami League gave its reaction to the Supreme Court verdict for scrapping the 16th Amendment, where the party termed some of the observations in the Supreme Court verdict irrelevant, objectionable and unacceptable.
On September 17, 2014, the AL-dominated parliament had unanimously passed the Constitution (16th Amend-ment) Bill, restoring its power to remove apex court judges on grounds of alleged misconduct or incapacity and scrapping the existing constitutional provisions for the Supreme Judicial Council to inquire into such allegations. But on July 3 this year, following petitions, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court scrapped the 16th Amendment and restored the Supreme Judicial Council to the utter dismay of the ruling AL.
