Making the appointment process transparent
Saturday, 1 December 2007
THERE should an appropriate mechanism to scrutinise all appointments of persons to constitutional posts. Such posts include those of the higher judiciary and also of other constitutional bodies like the Election Commission, the Public Service Commission etc. The need for a constitutional authority for overseeing and endorsing appointments to such responsible positions with powers thereof defined clearly under the Constitution can hardly be overstressed. Addressing this need is imperative for deep-seated institutional reforms of relevant bodies.
The main purpose of such a constitutional body should be blocking the appointment of relevant persons to positions, on political considerations. This would be considered a very important step that needs to be promoted by all concerned. As such, there has to be a well-concerted move to translate this idea into action. All concerned do need to lend strong support for forming such a body at the earliest. If it is formed with persons of probity and integrity included there as its core members, that will facilitate proper reforms of the relevant authorities for delivering good governance.
Political appointments of party loyalists and incompetent persons in positions of various vital constitutional bodies under the political governments, seriously undermined their neutrality and capacities for delivering outcomes. Here deep-seated institutional reforms are urgently called for, and for that matter, the appointment of truly capable and scrupulous persons in responsible constitutional posts, is very important.
To that end, the proposed constitutional body should, therefore, be set up with a sufficient number of politically neutral persons of untainted reputation and calibre as its members for proper checks and balances. The body should be also empowered to remove after scrutiny all those who have been appointed to important constitutional posts under political governments without deserving the appointments. This process of scrutiny and removal should be thoroughly and specially carried out in all such relevant constitutional bodies.
Md Asafadoullah
Hatirpool, Dhaka
The main purpose of such a constitutional body should be blocking the appointment of relevant persons to positions, on political considerations. This would be considered a very important step that needs to be promoted by all concerned. As such, there has to be a well-concerted move to translate this idea into action. All concerned do need to lend strong support for forming such a body at the earliest. If it is formed with persons of probity and integrity included there as its core members, that will facilitate proper reforms of the relevant authorities for delivering good governance.
Political appointments of party loyalists and incompetent persons in positions of various vital constitutional bodies under the political governments, seriously undermined their neutrality and capacities for delivering outcomes. Here deep-seated institutional reforms are urgently called for, and for that matter, the appointment of truly capable and scrupulous persons in responsible constitutional posts, is very important.
To that end, the proposed constitutional body should, therefore, be set up with a sufficient number of politically neutral persons of untainted reputation and calibre as its members for proper checks and balances. The body should be also empowered to remove after scrutiny all those who have been appointed to important constitutional posts under political governments without deserving the appointments. This process of scrutiny and removal should be thoroughly and specially carried out in all such relevant constitutional bodies.
Md Asafadoullah
Hatirpool, Dhaka