Annulment of 13th amendment: Ex-CJ Khairul Haque sued over ‘fraud, treason’

A case has been filed in Narayanganj against former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque over his alleged fraud and treason to alter the judgement that annulled the 13th amendment of the Constitution concerning the caretaker government.

BNP leader Abdul Bari Bhuiya filed the case with Fatullah Model Police Station yesterday (25 August), Nure Azam Mia, officer-in-charge of the police station, told The Business Standard.

Earlier on 18 August, he was sued in Dhaka over granting judgments that are false, corrupt and malicious in nature.

Justice Khairul Haque was appointed as the head of the judiciary in September 2010.

A week before his retirement, he authored the lead verdict declaring the nonpartisan election time government “illegal”, ignoring strong pleas by eminent jurists such as Dr Kamal Hossain, Barrister Rafique-ul Huq, Barrister M Amir-ul Islam, former attorney and general Mahmudul Islam, all of whom strongly argued for retaining the interim government system for the sake of country’s nascent democracy.

Even three of the judges of the Appellate Division Khairul Haque was leading did not consent to declaring the system “illegal”, giving dissenting verdicts. Three other judges, however, agreed with him, ensuring a stalemate.

Justice Khairul Haque, then, cast the decisive vote. The non-partisan caretaker government was declared “illegal”.

According to the case document, Khairul Haque omitted the part of the verdict that said two more elections could be held under a caretaker government.

The verdict gave Sheikh Hasina the biggest political weapon to cling to power. The end of the caretaker system meant an end to the mechanism of checks and balances which ensured free and fair elections in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008.