PM Hasina attributes country's development to independent judiciary, strong parliament

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said her government has taken various initiatives to ensure justice for people, attributing any country's development to independent judiciary, strong parliament and administration.

"After assuming power, we've made the judiciary totally independent separating it from the administration, which was the vision of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," she said.

The prime minister said this while addressing the closing session of the two-day International Conference on "South Asian Constitutional Courts in the Twenty-First Century: Lessons from Bangladesh and India" as the chief guest at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in Dhaka.

She said once judiciary was dependent on the government for financial ground. But, her government has separated the judiciary by allocating separate budget for it, she said.

The Awami League government, as well, has enacted a law for the formulation of Election Commission (EC) as it was earlier attached to the Prime Minister's Office, Sheikh Hasina said.

"We've also made the EC completely independent and allocated separate fund for it," she said, adding, "That means, we believe it, and for that purpose, the Awami League government could make it."

Apart from ensuring the independence of the judiciary, the government has made EC independent for the sake of election system so that it could ensure the rights of the people properly.