Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Wednesday filed a review petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of its verdict that abolished the non-party caretaker government system in 2011.
The party's Secretary General Miah Golam Parwar submitted the petition through lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir seeking necessary directives to reinstate the system.
With this latest one, a total of three review petitions are currently pending with the Appellate Division for disposal regarding the same matter.
The other two petitions-one filed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir while the other was filed by Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) Secretary Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar seeking reconsideration of the apex court verdict to bring back the caretaker government system.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on October 16 seeking restoration of the 13th amendment of the constitution that had introduced the caretaker government system.
Five prominent citizens including Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights organisation Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, had on August 27 filed the review petition saying that the caretaker government system had been introduced through political consensus of the people and therefore, it has become a basic structure of the constitution, which cannot be scrapped.
The review petitions will come up in the daily cause list from tomorrow (Thursday) for hearing, lawyers concerned said.
The Appellate Division verdict that had cancelled the 13th amendment of the constitution is self-contradictory as the court in its short verdict said that the next two national elections (10th and 11th parliamentary elections) could be held under the caretaker government, but this directive was not mentioned in the full judgement, they said in the petitions.
The four other petitioners are Tofail Ahmed, M Hafizuddin Khan, Md Jobirul Hoque Bhuiyan and Zahrah Rahman.
A seven-judge full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, declared by a majority view on May 10, 2011, the 13th amendment to the constitution (related to the caretaker government) null and void.
After the verdict was announced, the 15th Amendment Act was passed by the National Parliament on June 30, 2011, bringing several issues, including the abolition of the caretaker government system. A gazette notification was published to this effect on July 3, 2011.
