SC gives Fakhrul another day to explain comment
The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday asked BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to file a written explanation by today on his alleged comments made against the judiciary recently. The five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, was responding to a petition filed by Fakhruls lawyer Zainul Abedin seeking more time. On February 18, the apex court had asked him to give his explanation to the Appellate Division by February 22.
The show-cause notice pertains to the alleged comments Fakhrul made at a party meeting in Sylhet on February 7. According to media reports, the BNP leader had said that the government was trying to control the judiciary. He had allegedly said that there was no democracy and no independent judiciary in the country. The apex court sought the explanation while hearing three bail petitions filed by Fakhrul in cases of arson and vandalism. Today is the next hearing on those petitions. On November 24, 2015, the High Court (HC) had granted three-month bail to Fakhrul in connection with the three cases. The government had challenged the HC order in the apex court on November 26. However, the SC upheld the order on November 30. On the same day, Fakhrul was released.
On January 6 last year, plainclothes policemen picked up Fakhrul as he came out of the Jatiya Press Club after staying there for nearly 25 hours, following the BNPs announcement that it would observe January 5 as Democracy Killing Day, protesting against the 10th parliamentary poll, which had been held on that day.
