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Wife's Treatment

Justice Khairul took money as per rules

Staff Correspondent
Former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque received Tk 10.37 lakh from the prime minister's relief fund for his wife's medical treatment abroad, reliable sources told The Daily Star.
The leader of the opposition might have used this to accuse Justice Khairul of nullifying the caretaker government system for money. Opposition chief Khaleda Zia on Wednesday said Justice Khairul had nullified the system formoney.
Her statement triggered widespread debate between ruling and opposition camps. The camps had been at loggerheads since the apex court delivered the verdict in May.
The BNP-led opposition camp had criticised the chief justice for delivering the verdict which led to the cancellation of the caretaker government system. The government used the verdict to abolish the system passing the
15th amendment to the constitution in June.
A pro-BNP newspaper a few months ago published a report that said the former chief justice received money from the prime minister's relief fund.
Justice Khairul, however, did not personally ask for the money from the relief fund. Rather, it was the law justice and parliamentary affairs ministry that managed the financial assistance following a letter from the Supreme Court, according to various sources and related documents obtained by The Daily Star yesterday.
The office of the registrar of the Supreme Court sent the letter to the law ministry on July 5,2009, for the financial assistance after Justice Khairul formally asked the then chief justice MM Ruhul
Amin.
In his letter to Justice Ruhul Amin, Justice Khairul sought $15,000 financial assistance for his wife's treatment in Bangkok. His wife Asma Haque was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease and doctors recommended she be treated abroad.
"But due to paucity of fund I am unable to bear the cost for such treatment," Justice Khairul wrote to the then chief justice.
"Justice ABM Khairul Haque, a High Court judge, applied for $15,000 as per rules," says the registrar's letter to the law ministry.
The law ministry then got the money for Justice Khairul and informed the registrar office about it and to take the money. The registrar office collected the cheque and an officer handed a cheque worth Tk
10.37 lakh over to Justice Khairul, a person close to Justice Khairul told The Daily Star yesterday.
Interestingly, Justice Khairul took his wife for treatment abroad on the advice of Prof Badruddoza Chowdhury, former president of Bangladesh, a renowned physician, and a former BNP stalwart.
Prof Badruddoza had suggested that Asma Haque should immediately be treated either at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London or at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok.
A medical board constituted by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University also recommended on July 7,2009, that Asma Haque be treated abroad in a developed country, documents say.
The Daily Star collected information from reliable
sources that show over 20 Supreme Court judges including three other former chief justices, government officials and eminent personalities received money in last seven years for medical purposes.
Former chief justices MM Ruhul Amin received Tk 21.15 lakh, Md Tafazzul Islam Tk 15.70 lakh and Mohammad Fazlul Karim received Tk 3.69 lakh from the prime minister's relief fund.
Incumbent judges to the Appellate Division SK Sinha and Md Shamsul Huda and former Appellate Division judges Abdul Aziz and Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman also received money from the prime min-ister's relief fund. Some judges of the High Court Division also received money from the fund.