NHRC becomes ‘retirement home’ for bureaucrats’

Says Shahdeen Malik

Senior lawyer Dr Shahdeen Malik yesterday said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has turned into a sort of retirement home for the bureaucrats of the government. Lamenting the inactivity of the NHRC in ensuring human rights across the country, Dr Malik said it’s quite absurd to expect that a bureaucrat after following instruction from the public office for over three decades would suddenly challenge the questionable activities of the state.

The senior lawyer was speaking at a discussion programme titled “United Nations' Recommendation on Enforced Disappearance and Reality,” organised by the Moulik Odhikar Shurakkha Committee at the National Press Club in Dhaka.

He said the NHRC top officials are usually retired bureaucrats, who after a long career in the government office, get appointed to run this independent commission.

He, however, said these bureaucrats stay in service for more than three to six years, get good cars and travel to foreign countries and barely raise their voice against the state-sponsored crimes. In the government service, there is no culture where an official can express his or her dissent to a senior colleague, Dr Malik said, adding that if the person in question has a different opinion, s/he keeps mum.

"Therefore, they are constitutionally unfit for running and representing the NHRC,” he added. The senior lawyer also said enforced disappearance or extra-judicial killing can never solve a persisting problem in the society. “Central American countries are great examples of the futility of these state-sponsored crimes. Most of them have weak governance and frail social system,” he viewed.

 

NHRC becomes retirement home for bureaucrats

Says Shahdeen Malik

Senior lawyer Dr Shahdeen Malik yesterday said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has turned into a sort of retirement home for the bureaucrats of the government. Lamenting the inactivity of the NHRC in ensuring human rights across the country, Dr Malik said its quite absurd to expect that a bureaucrat after following instruction from the public office for over three decades would suddenly challenge the questionable activities of the state. The senior lawyer was speaking at a discussion programme titled United Nations Recommendation on Enforced Disappearance and Reality, organised by the Moulik Odhikar Shurakkha Committee at the National Press Club in Dhaka. He said the NHRC top officials are usually retired bureaucrats, who after a long career in the government office, get appointed to run this independent commission. He, however, said these bureaucrats stay in service for more than three to six years, get good cars and travel to foreign countries and barely raise their voice against the state-sponsored crimes. In the government service, there is no culture where an official can express his or her dissent to a senior colleague, Dr Malik said, adding that if the person in question has a different opinion, s/he keeps mum. Therefore, they are constitutionally unfit for running and representing the NHRC, he added. The senior lawyer also said enforced disappearance or extra-judicial killing can never solve a persisting problem in the society. Central American countries are great examples of the futility of these state-sponsored crimes. Most of them have weak governance and frail social system, he viewed.