Law Excerpts
Article 58C(2): Provision for two caretaker governments?
Sinha MA Sayeed
While making provision for non-party, neutral caretaker government through 13th amendment to the constitution, confusion and ambiguity might have haunted the very mindset of the BNP lawmakers in the 6th parliament. Surprisingly enough, they instead of truly going for a non-party, neutral CTG, made provision for two types of caretaker government which was, in fact, a reflection of their hastiness leading to a kind of constitutional and political romanticism; and it has been manifested in the article 58C(2) that reads: "The Chief Adviser and other Advisers shall be appointed within 15 days after parliament is dissolved or stands dissolved, and during the period between the date on which parliament is dissolved or stands dissolved and the date on which the Chief Adviser is appointed, the Prime Minister and his/her cabinet who were in office immediately before parliament was dissolved or stood dissolved shall continue to hold office as such."
Therefore it is found that the said article provides two types of interim government in serial which are:
a) A party-run, non-elected interim government with Prime Minister and Council of Ministers who were in office immediately before dissolution of parliament with a view to giving the President 15 days time to make a person available for the office of the Chief Adviser pursuant to article 58C (3), (4), (5) and (6) successively.
b) A non-party, neutral and non-elected interim government known as non-party, neutral caretaker government with a Chief Adviser and 10 advisers aimed at ensuring a congenial atmosphere for holding free and fair elections to parliament conducted by the Election Commission independently.
So, the questions are: When it is constitutionally decided as to who shall be Chief Adviser of non-party, neutral CTG pursuant to article 58C(3), (4), (5) and (6) in succession then what encouraged or motivated the BNP lawmakers to go for a "stopover" party-run interim government? Why the 15 out of 90 days' timeframe shall be wasted as such? Isn't it redundant? How many days or how much time out of the 15-day timeframe shall the President use for each sub-clause to find out a possible constitutional choice?
Therefore, keeping the reform proposals in true perspective placed on behalf of the opposition fourteen parties' combine by AL secretary general Abdul Jalil to BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan on the opening of the dialogue on 5th October, the following recommendations for reforms need to be taken care of as well:
I. Replacing article 58C(2), there shall be a constitutional provision to the effect that President shall begin or take initiative 15 days before the dissolution of Parliament to find out a possible person for the office of the Chief Adviser to the non-party, neutral CTG pursuant to Article 58C(3), (4), (5) and 6 accordingly.
2. The 15-day timeframe shall be reallocated in the following manner: 3 days for Article 58C(3); 4 days for Article 58C(4); 7 days for Article 58C(5) and 1 day for article 58C(6) provided that before switching over from one sub-clause to another, there shall be regular press briefings at Bangabhaban or at least a press release from Bangabhaban so that the nation may be apprised of the latest situation coming out of the President's initiative.
3. Sub-clause (6) should be dropped or replaced by the sitting Chief Justice of Bangladesh following 11th amendment to the constitution; because it is not becoming that President should at the same time also be the head of the CTG and such circumstances will make the things more complicated and questionable if the President himself is a political personality which outright stands opposed to Article 58C(7) (b).
4. If a ruling party ever opts for a mid-term poll to Parliament, in that case, Prime Minister, giving President 15 days time limit, shall ask the President in writing to dissolve Parliament which shall be effective from the date of the appointment of a Chief Adviser following Article 58C(3) or (4) or (5) or (6) (replaced by sitting Chief Justice).
We must not forget that 13th amendment has been made with a definite purpose to ensure neutrality and fairness of the persons who shall be running the non-party, neutral CTG at the same time also making the process easy and convincing while giving birth to such government.
The writer is former international, publications & publicity secretary, central working committee of Jatiya Party.
