Bangladesh News

Would-be chief adviser to the next caretaker government Justice KM Hasan thinks the ongoing controversy over him is “irrational” and “unexpected”, his well-wishers said.

“An unreasonable debate has been going on centring me,” Justice Naimuddin Ahmed told The Daily Star yesterday quoting Justice Hasan as saying while talking to him over telephone recently.

Justice Hasan also questioned the fairness of the ongoing debate, sources close to his well-wishers said.

Justice KM Hasan has been the first natural choice for the post of the caretaker government chief following a 2004 amendment to the constitution that extended the retirement age of Supreme Court judges.

The Awami League (AL)-led 14-party opposition combine has been opposing Justice Hasan as the chief of the interim government on grounds of his affiliation with BNP in the past. But the BNP-led ruling alliance has been rigid to have Hasan in the post.

The rigidity of the country’s two main political parties has triggered enormous political standoff ahead of the next parliamentary elections.

Justice Naimudidn at a discussion on Tuesday disclosed that he recently had a conversation with KM Hasan.

Justice Naimuddin said he told Hasan that he now has two options–to live the rest of his life with the honour of a former chief justice, or to be a victim of the dishonest and corrupt politics.

“I do not know what he will do, but I suggested him to take a decision quickly,” Naimuddin, also a former election commissioner, told The Daily Star.

A source close to an eminent citizen, who also had a conversation with Justice Hasan this week, said the former chief justice believes that the ongoing controversy over him is “unexpected”.

Referring to the conversation, the source said Justice Hasan is yet to decide his next course of action.

“I could not understand what he [Hasan] will do in the wake of the prevailing political situation,” the source told The Daily Star yesterday.

In his conversations with the well-wishers, Justice Hasan also clarified that he has had no contact with any political party or leader recently.

Political analysts observed that the ongoing stalemate may not resolve until the time of handing over power to the caretaker government comes.

On expiry of the present government’s tenure on October 27, President Iajuddin Ahmed will invite Justice Hasan to take oath as the chief adviser to the caretaker government in accordance with the constitution.

Until then, nothing is going to be clear about how Justice Hasan will respond to the president’s invitation, they said.

Meanwhile, uncertainty in the people’s mind has been mounting over the success of the ongoing dialogue between ruling BNP and main opposition AL to resolve the difference over Justice Hasan.