Court hearing on Shahid's parliament membership due today
A writ petition may be heard in court today, Sunday, seeking the seat of Lakshmipur-2 lawmaker Shahid Islam alias Papul to be declared vacant on charges of submitting false information when seeking candidacy in the election.
Independent candidate of the same constituency (Lakshmipur-2) Abul Foyez Bhuiyan filed the petition on 16 August 2018 claiming that lawmaker Shahid submitted forged education certificates when filing papers for candidacy in the 11th national parliamentary election.
The petition appears at serial 236 on today's High Court (Sunday) agenda, for hearing at the bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah.
Charged with human trafficking, bribery and money laundering, MP Shahid Islam is presently in jail in Kuwait. On Thursday, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced him to four years imprisonment on charges of bribery. He was also fined Tk 531 million (Tk 53 crore).
The writ petition said that MP Papul's affidavit mentioned he had an MA degree, but he submitted a Bachelor's certificate of Social Sciences in Economics from Milton Margai College of Education and Technology in Sierra Leone. The petition also mentioned that the university in Sierra Leone had no such department. He did not submit any Masters certificate with his affidavit.
At the preliminary hearing of this petition on 18 August 2020, the High Court issued a rule asking why the seat of Mohammad Shahid Islam Papul (Lakshmipur-2) should not be declared vacant.
The High Court asked the chief election commissioner along with six defenders to respond the rule within four weeks.
Lawyer of petitioner Md. Salahuddin told Prothom Alo on Saturday that defenders had not responded as yet.
Meanwhile a discussion was raised in parliament regarding his imprisonment in Kuwait and whether he will retain his parliamentary seat or not.
Lawyers say that according to the constitution, if an MP is convicted of a criminal offence of moral turpitude and sentenced to at least two years in prison, his membership from parliament will be revoked. But the question is that the Papul has been sentenced by a foreign court.
Editor of the legal periodical Dhaka Law Report (DLR) and senior lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission Md. Khurshid Alam Khan told Prothom Alo that the matter requires a constitutional explanation of High Court.
'BNP to blame'
At a press briefing on Friday, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi held ruling Awami League responsible for the conviction of MP Papul in a Kuwait court.
He said the corruption of incumbent government has now got international recognition through his conviction.
Reacting to Rizvi’s remark, AL joint general secretary of Mahbubul Alam Hanif MP on Saturday told journalists that Shahid was not a lawmaker of the ruling party. He was elected as an independent candidate of the Laxmipur-2 constituency. Papul became a billionaire through corruption in BNP’s regime and BNP would have to bear the responsibility, he said.