Emergency to go fully before polls

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Law Adviser AF Hassan Ariff yesterday said the government is considering withdrawing fully the emergency rules before the next general election.

Some sections of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), 2007 that bar electioneering will be withdrawn next month after the Election Commission (EC) announces timetable for the elections to city corporations, he added.

“The Election Commission has been talking about schedule for polls to four city corporations. So, the EPR sections or other laws that are obstacles to electoral activities would have to go,” he said during his weekly press briefing at the secretariat.

Asked if the state of emergency will be withdrawn completely before the city corporation elections, he said it is something to be decided by the cabinet. There is however no denying that the EPR must be relaxed, he added.

Ariff, former attorney general, also said the emergency rules should be withdrawn completely before the parliamentary polls and discussions are on to that end.

He continues: “The EPR will not be there if (general) elections are to be held.”

Earlier on February 14, the law adviser said there is no bar to holding election with the state of emergency in force, but some of the emergency power rules must be withdrawn since they block electoral activities.

At the briefing yesterday, he said the government is working to amend the Vested Property Law, which contains a number of “flaws and grey areas”.

Besides, he said, a new contempt of court law with a more elaborate definition of the term “contempt” is in the making. It will replace the existing one introduced in 1926.

Asked if the role of the Anti-Corruption Commission in dealing with the accused in graft cases embroils the government in controversy, he replied in the negative.

CIVIL COURTS IN CHT
Briefing on the status of the move to set up civil district and sessions judge’s courts in Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari, the law adviser said the amendments brought in 2003 to the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation, 1900, which is the basis of justice in the hill districts, have yet to be implemented.

The government has been working to implement the amendments, he said, adding, “They will be implemented after a decision by the Nicar (National Implementation Committee for Administration Reform Reorganization).”

District and joint district judge’s courts will be set up soon and the joint district judges will also act as sessions judges, he added.

He said due to the provisions of CHT Regulation, 1900, the locals now have to go to the divisional commissioner instead of a sessions judge to appeal a chief judicial magistrate’s judgment.

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