The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 20-party alliance today announced a two-day programme protesting the government's move to restore the parliament's authority to impeach judges.
The alliance will bring out processions and hold rallies across the country excluding Dhaka tomorrow, while in the capital on September 11, BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan announced at a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office.
"The government has taken the decision to keep judges under threat and to establish supremacy over judiciary," the BNP leader said at the press conference.
In the face of widespread criticism, the government on September 7 placed a constitutional amendment bill in parliament seeking to restore the Jatiya Sangsad's authority to impeach a Supreme Court judge on grounds of misbehaviour or incapacity.
The existing constitutional provision for the chief justice-led Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) will cease to exist once the bill is passed, reports the Daily Star.
Many jurists, civil society organisations and personalities and opposition parties have been urging the government to refrain from abolishing the SJC since the cabinet approved the proposal for the constitutional amendment on August 18.
According to the current provision, the SJC comprising the chief justice and two senior judges of the Appellate Division investigates allegations of misconduct against any SC judge, and makes necessary recommendations to the president for the next course of action.
