New bench to hear plea on Nizam Hazari's MP status

The Supreme Court (SC) formed on Tuesday a new bench to hear a writ petition that challenged the legality of parliament membership of ruling Awami League leader Nizam Uddin Hazari report agencies.

The single bench of Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman will hear the petition, said Advocate Satyaranjon Mandal, lawyer of the petitioner.

On Monday, the single High Court (HC) bench of Justice Farid Ahmed expressed embarrassment to hear the petition over the legality of Nizam holding a parliamentary seat and sent it to the acting Chief Justice.

Later, the acting Chief Justice assigned the bench for hearing and disposing of the petition.

The HC felt embarrassed to hear the writ petition for eight times and gave split order once after hearing the plea.

On December 6 last year, an HC bench delivered a split verdict on a writ petition challenging the legality of AL MP Nizam Uddin Hazari's parliament membership.

Senior judge of the bench, Justice Md Emdadul Huq, declared the election of the Feni-2 constituency MP, Nizam Hazari, illegal, while the junior judge of the bench, Justice FRM Nazmul Ahsan, rejected the petition.

In 2014, Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan, a Juba League leader of Feni, filed the writ petition with the HC, attaching a newspaper report of May 10, 2014, stating that Nizam Uddin Hazari had been awarded 10 years of imprisonment in an arms case, but had been freed from prison two years and 10 months before his jail term was completed.