More lawmen may follow Fida suit

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More law officers in the Supreme Court (SC) may resign from office if the government does not remove some discriminatory provisions amending the Government Attorney Service Ordinance, 2008.

Sources in the Attorney General’s Office say at least 10 more law officers are considering resignation as they are not ready to accept the discriminatory provisions in the ordinance.

“We have already demanded that the government repeal or amend the ordinance providing rules which can keep our dignity, status and financial support protected,” says a law officer asking not to be identified.

“The government has not taken any initiative to change the ordinance. We’re waiting for the government’s response to our demands. If the government does not do anything, we’ll quit.”

The law officers, however, told The Daily Star they would wait before taking any course of action until appointment of new attorney general.

Earlier, Barrister Fida M Kamal resigned from the office of the attorney general on July 16.

The law officers said the government didn’t consult the attorneys including Fida M Kamal before promulgating the ordinance, under which the Government Attorney Department has been set up to deal with cases in courts and performing other duties on behalf of the state.

“There are some discriminatory provisions in the Ordinance including a top tier with two bosses — the attorney general (AG) and the director general (DG). The provision of replacing existing attorneys within two years is a blow to our honour and dignity, as we’ve come to serve the state for five years leaving our independent practice and seniors’ chambers,” an attorney said.

The law officer added Fida M Kamal resigned from the constitutional post for some specific reasons, including making a joint secretary the director general of the Government Attorney Department.

He said the attorneys are all practising lawyers. “A joint secretary has been appointed as the boss of the law officers. A bureaucrat cannot be our boss.”

The government has yet to appoint anyone as the attorney general. Additional Attorney General Munsur Habib told The Daily Star last night that the government even didn’t assign the charges of AG to anyone.

Usually the senior most additional attorney general gets the charges in absence of the attorney general.

Sources say if the government doesn’t appoint anyone as the attorney general right now, it will appoint an additional AG as the acting AG.

The AG office has two additional AGs — Salahuddin Ahmad and Munsur Habib. Of them, Salahuddin is senior as he had joined in this post before Habib.

Meanwhile, Law Adviser AF Hassan Ariff yesterday termed Fida’s resignation a “great loss”.

“It’s a great loss to me,” Ariff told journalists. Ariff also served as the AG during the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government when Fida was an additional AG.

Fida tendered his resignation from the AG post when he had an over five-hour-long meeting with the law adviser at his ministry.

Though Fida has showed “personal” reason for his resignation he, in fact, had a long discord with the government over several issues.

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