Search committee seeks five names from 31 parties each [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Search committee seeks five names from 31 parties each

Local January 29, 2017

The six-member search committee on Election Commission reconstitution on Saturday sought five names as potential election commissioners from each of the 31 political parties that held discussion with president Abdul Hamid on the much talked-about issue.
The 31 political parties will get until 11:00am on Tuesday to submit the names to the Cabinet Division.
At its first meeting held at the Supreme Court Judges’ Lounge in the morning, the committee also requested 12 representatives of distinguished citizens to give their opinions on the issue at the next meeting of the committee.
The 12 are former High Court Division judge Justice Abdur Rashid, former Dhaka University vice-chancellors AK Azad Chowdhury and SMA Faiz, emeritus professor Serajul Islam Choudhury of the university and its supernumerary professor Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, former chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, former election commissioners Muhammed Sohul Hussain and Muhammad Sakhawat Hussain, lawyer and rights campaigner Sultana Kamal, local government expert Tofayel Ahmed, former inspector general of police Nurul Huda and Citizens for Good Governance’s secretary Badiul Alam Majumdar.
Cabinet Division secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed journalists on the two decisions of the committee. The division is providing the search panel with the secretarial support.
‘The committee decided to hold meeting with the representatives of distinguished citizens at its second meeting to be held at the SC Judges’ Lounge at 4:00pm on Monday,’ he said.
The search committee, led by Appellate Division’s judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, selected the 12 persons to share its views with them,’ the secretary said.
‘The search committee has finalised the modus operandi at its maiden meeting with the presence of all its members,’ he informed.
The meeting lasted nearly two hours.
Five other members on the search committee are High Court Division’s judge Justice Obaidul Hassan, comptroller and auditor general Masud Ahmed, Public Service Commission’s chairman Muhammed Sadique, Dhaka University English professor Syed Manzoorul Islam and Chittagong University pro-vice-chancellor Shireen Akhter.
Masud Ahmed and Syed Manzoorul Islam, when approached by the waiting journalists, avoided answering their queries, referring them to the briefing of the secretary.
The search committee’s decisions came at a time when secretary-general of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a discussion on Saturday said that BNP had nothing to hope from the committee appointed by the president.
Ruling Awami League’s joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif at a discussion on Friday urged its key political opponents to keep confidence in the president.
On January 25, the president, Abdul Hamid, formed the six-member search committee and asked them to recommend to him two persons against each post of the commission — chief election commissioner and four commissioners — in 10 working days.
The tenure of the incumbent chief election commissioner and four other commissioners, whose names were recommended by the previous search committee, led by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, is due to expire on February 8.
The president received proposals from 31 political parties during his talks with them, between December 18, 2016 and January 18, 2017, on the reconstitution of the commission.
Twenty of the parties proposed enactment of a law on the appointment of the chief and other election commissioners saying that the president had to make the appointment under the provisions of a law as stipulated in the constitution.
No such law has yet been enacted since the adoption of the constitution in 1972.