PM emphasises scrapping Supreme Judicial Council

Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina stressed on Saturday the need for scrapping the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and restoring the article 96 of the Constitution saying that this system does not go with the parliamentary democratic system, reports UNB.
She made the comment while responding to a question at a press conference, organised at her official residence Ganobhaban to brief the media about the outcome of her recent London tour.
The PM said the SJC was enacted during Ziaur Rahman's regime when there was no democracy in the country.
During the Pakistan regime, Hasina said, General Yahya had introduced this system first. "We want to go back to the 1972 constitution where Parliament had the power to impeach judges," she said.
In the 1972 constitution, the article 96 allowed Parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges for proven offences or incapability by the vote of two-thirds majority.
The PM also said the highest court of the country already declared illegal the grabbing of state power by Ziaur Rahman and also scrapped the 5th amendment to the Constitution.
As the country has the parliamentary democracy now and the people of the country are the nucleolus of all power, the public representatives need to get back the power to impeach judges as people elected them.
In this connection, Hasina said the Law Commission and Human Rights Commission also extended their support for scrapping the SJC system.
Meanwhile, Trashing the rumour of entente with Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Saturday said Awami League (AL) always does politics for people, never of any entente.
She said this while responding to a question at a press conference which was organised to brief the media about the outcome of her recent London visit at her official residence Ganobhaban Saturday.
"We never do politics of entente… what agony do we have for which we'll have to pursue the politics of entente with Jamaat," the PM questioned adding that AL had nothing to gain from Jamaat.
The PM made the comment as rumours have it amid the slow pace of trial of war criminals that AL has had some sort of entente with Jamaat. "The trial has started, it's the jurisdiction of the court now, we've nothing to do," she said.
As the executive body, Hasina said, the government could only execute the verdicts of the court, nothing else. "I can't just bring up one alleged war criminal and hang him. This is not my duty until the executive body gets the verdict from the judiciary," she said.