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SC against technocrat ministers

Shakhawat Liton
The present constitutional provision for technocrat ministers is undemocratic and contrary to the fundamental principles of the original constitution of 1972, observed the Supreme Court in its full verdict on the 13th amendment.
The provision regarding appointment of technocrat ministers in the original constitution needs to be restored for the sake of democracy, said the verdict.
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The 1972 constitution had introduced the provision, conditionally allowing appointment of a person, who is not an MP, as a member of the council of ministers.
The condition was that he/she must be elected to parliament within six months of the appointment. In the instance of failure to be elected within that time, he/she would cease to be a member of the council of ministers.
But as per present provision, if a person, who is not an MP, is once appointed a member of the council of ministers, he/she can continue in office till the last day of the government's tenure or till the day the prime minister asks him/her to resign.
On May 10 last year, the
then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque, who led the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in declaring illegal the 13th amendment to the constitution, said democratic practice and empowerment of people had been reflected at every stage of the original constitution.
But the changes brought into the provision later damaged this spirit, said the judgment, the full text of which was released last week.
The apex court, however, refrained from making any announcement on it, as the matter was not under the court's consideration, Justice Khairul said.
The fourth amendment to the constitution in 1975 brought about significant changes in the provision on the appointment of non-
elected individuals as members of the council of ministers.
The amendment gave the president absolute authority to appoint anybody as prime minister or minister regardless of whether he/she was an MP. And the condition imposed on non-elected people to be elected within six months was done away with.
Military ruler Ziaur Rahman, amending the constitution through martial law proclamations in 1978, limited the president’s discretionary power to appoint ministers. The changes made it mandatory for the president to appoint a prime minister from among MPs, one who commands the support of the majority.
Regarding the appointment of ministers, the
changes said not more than one-fifth of the members of the council of ministers shall be chosen from among persons qualified for election as MPs.
The constitution's 12th amendment in 1991, through which the country switched back to the parliamentary form of government, also brought about changes to this provision on technocrat ministers. The changes say that not less than nine-tenths of the ministers shall be appointed from among MPs and not more than one-tenth of the ministers may be chosen from among persons qualified for election as MPs.
None of the previous changes restored the original provision of the 1972 constitution.
The issue, however, was raised during the last consti-
tutional amendment. Members of the parliamentary special committee formed to prepare proposals for amendments spoke for a restoration of the original provision on technocrat ministers. But the committee failed to come up with a recommendation to do so.
In their defence of the abolition of the caretaker government system, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet colleagues have been saying the CG consisted of unelected persons and the constitution in no way allows unelected people to rule the country.
But the law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, industries minister and state minister for science and technology are unelected persons, and they have been holding office since January 2009.