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Sohel Taj's Resignation

Speaker Hamid in no hurry

Staff Correspondent
Speaker Abdul Hamid has yet to give any directive to the Parliament Secretariat on issuing a gazette notification declaring Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj's parliament seat vacant.
Sohel Taj, son of the country's first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, resigned as lawmaker on Monday sending his resignation letter to the speaker through a messenger.
The Election Commission will have to hold by-polls to the seat in 90 days once it is declared vacant.
Ruling Awami League General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam raised the issue at an informal discussion with the prime minister after the weekly cabinet meeting. He also claimed the constitutional provision is that lawmakers must submit their resignation letters in person to the speaker, meeting sources said.
In response, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the speaker will decide about the next course of action regarding Sohel Taj's resignation, the sources added.
Highly placed sources, however, said the resignation may be kept unattended without declaring the seat vacant citing "procedural errors".
Asked why no move yet by the Parliament Secretariat in this regard, the speaker yesterday said he is examining authenticity of the resignation letter.
"I will let all of you know when I take a decision," he told The Daily Star.
The speaker is examining authenticity of the resignation as Sohel Taj, who is abroad, did not personally submit the resignation letter and sent it through his aide.
No action by the Parliament Secretariat that functions under the speaker has however raised some questions over his jurisdiction over accepting or reject-ing the resignation. Speculations are rife if Sohel Taj followed proper procedures to resign or the speaker has the authority to decline his resignation letter.
A High Court verdict delivered in early 1995 however says the Constitution does not have any such provision authorising the speaker to accept or reject a letter of resignation submitted by a member of parliament.
On practice of submitting the resignation letter by an MP in person, the court said the resignation letter need not be in the hand of the lawmaker concerned; it is sufficient if it is signed by him or her.
The speaker, however, may check genuineness or voluntariness of resignation if there is any doubt, the HC observed.
The HC gave the verdict in response to a writ petition filed after 147 opposition MPs resigned en masse from the Fifth Parliament on December28,1994.
The then speaker, Sheikh Razzak Ali had declined to accept the mass resignation and informed the House that in his view the resignation was not contemplated according to article 67 (2) of the Constitution.
The article empowers an MP to resign by signing a letter under his or her hand addressed to the speaker and the seat will fall vacant when the writing is received by the speaker.
As he analyses the constitutional provision on MPs' resignation and the provisions stipulated in the rules of procedure of parliament, former attorney general Mahmudul Islam in his book "Constitutional Law of Bangladesh" writes that a resignation letter will take effect when it reaches the speaker.
Sohel Taj's resignation as a lawmaker is supposed to put an end to the prime minister's effort to forcibly keep him as a state minister without portfolio although he resigned from her cabinet 33 months ago.
His resignation from parliament makes him disqualified as per article 58 (1) (b) of the Constitution from being the so-called state minister without portfolio.
He is not allowed to remain as a technocrat state minister either as he was not inducted into the cabinet as a technocrat. He was an MP when he was made the state minister in January2009.
If the premier still wants to make him a technocrat minister, she must appoint him as a technocrat minister or state minister through the president and Sohel Taj must be sworn in then.