Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir today told the Supreme Court that a dictatorial and totalitarian regime had been established in Bangladesh through the cancellation of the non-party caretaker government system.
"Due to this dictatorial regime, Bangladesh has gone through a major disaster in all aspects of politics, economy and social policy. The non-party caretaker government system is the most acceptable formula for democracy as it is possible to hold free, fair, impartial and credible elections under such a government," he said.
The lawyer said this while placing arguments before a seven-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed during its third day of hearing of the appeals and review petitions against its 2011 verdict that scrapped the non-party caretaker government system.
The apex court fixed October 28 for resuming the hearing.
Today, Advocate Shishir Manir told the SC that the caretaker government system was scrapped in the light of a completely pre-planned design, although the committee concerned of the parliament at that time had not wanted to exclude the system.
Arguing for restoring the caretaker government system, Shishir Manir told the apex court that the caretaker government system cannot be effectively implemented during the period of the current interim government as the parliament is not functional now.
The Jamaat lawyer said that whatever verdict the Appellate Division delivers, it should conform to the July Charter's proposals on the caretaker government system.
Otherwise, the total reform process will be affected and lost, he added.
Advocate Shishir Manir is expected to place further arguments on October 28.
Earlier in the day, Barrister Ehsan A Siddiq, the lawyer for rights body Law, Governance and Policy, an intervener of the case, told the SC that the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, which had introduced the caretaker government system in 1996, is a basic structure of the constitution and a constitutional convention as it has strengthened the democracy of the country through holding free, fair and credible elections.
On May 10, 2011, a seven-judge full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by then Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, declared the 13th amendment to the Constitution null and void by a majority decision.