“We think the two ministers do not have the ethical right to remain in the Cabinet following the verdict,” BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
“They should resign for the sake of ethics, for the sake of democracy.”
Food Minister Md Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq have been found guilty by the apex court on Sunday for their remarks on a war crimes convict’s appeal hearing.
At a discussion on Mar 5, Food Minister Md Qamrul Islam called for a new bench that, in his view, should exclude the chief justice to hear Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali’s appeal.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, too, criticised the chief justice at the same programme.
The Appellate Division on Sunday slapped a fine of Tk 50, 000 on each. If they don’t pay up within seven days, they will have to spend a week in prison.
Asked if the two can still be in the cabinet, Attorney General Muhbubey Islam said the government would decide, but it was a matter of ‘ethics’.
Terming the judgment ‘historic’, Mirza Fakhrul said, “The verdict will undoubtedly play a historic role in protecting the independence of the judiciary.”
“Democracy and ethics suggest that ministers lose their ethical right to be in the cabinet when the apex court penalise them.”
