Govt disowns ministers’ comments on CJ: Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today expressed dissatisfaction over the comment of two ministers on the chief justice.

The government would not own the remarks, Hasina said at a regular cabinet meeting today.

The premier said she and her party felt discomfort with the behaviour of the two ministers, a minister, who was present at scene, told The Daily Star seeking anonymity.

For twice, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque criticised Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.

Minister Qamrul, also a joint general secretary of the ruling Awami League's Dhaka city unit, alleged that the chief justice was openly speaking in the language of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and their lobbyists. The other minister went even further to say that the chief justice should not be delivering the verdict in the appeal of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.

READ MORE: Diatribes against CJ continue

During the hearing of Mir Quasem’s appeal on February 23, the chief justice expressed dissatisfaction over the poor performance of prosecutors and investigators in dealing with the war crimes cases.

The food minister demanded that the appeal hearing be reheard in a reconstituted Appellate Division bench, keeping the chief justice out of it.

These two ministers were present at the cabinet meeting today when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed dissatisfaction over their behaviour.

She said she did not like the matter at all. “It is not proper how they spoke,” the minister, who sourced The Daily Star, quoted her as saying.

Some other ministers also said it was not appropriate to comment on a sub-judice matter.

Besides, the cabinet today approved draft of Bus Rapid Transtit Act-2016 keeping provision of fine, jail, punishment for offender and compensation for victims.