HC issues rule over cancelling parliament membership of Papul, Harunur Rashid
The High Court on Tuesday asked the government to explain as to why Lakshmipur-2 MP Mohammad Shahid Islam alias Papul and BNP leader Md Harunor Rashid’s Chapainawabganj-3 parliamentary seats should not be declared vacant, reports news agencies UNB and BSS.
The bench of justice Obaidul Hassan and justice AKM Zahirul Huq issued the rules following two petitions challenging the legality of the post of Shahid and Harunur Rashid as parliamentary members.
Speaker of the national parliament, chief election commissioner, election commission secretary, secretary to the parliament secretariat, deputy commissioner of Lakshmipur district, Anti-Corruption Commission, law secretary, cabinet secretary, Chapainawabganj deputy commissioner, Harunur Rashid, MP Shahid have been made respondents to the rule which is returnable in four weeks.
Shahid is currently in a jail in Kuwait.
Advocate Sheikh Ausafur Rahman and Mohammad Saleh Uddin stood for the petitioner against Shahid while deputy attorney general Jesmine Sultana Shamshad and assistant attorney general Samiul Alam Sarkar represented the state.
Shahid has submitted his fake educational certificate which is a violation to the Representation of the People Order 1972
On 13 August, Abul Foyej Bhuiya, a candidate (independent) of the 11th parliamentary election filed the writ petition challenging the legality of MP Shahid’s post as he has been accused of providing fake documents and submitting fake education certificates, said Ausafur.
Shahid has submitted his fake educational certificate which is a violation to the Representation of the People Order 1972.
Shahid was arrested in Kuwait in June in cases related to human trafficking, residency visa trading and money laundering. He was sent to prison there.
Then, the public prosecutor of Kuwait had approached the Central Bank to freeze his bank accounts. The financial balance of the company amounts to about five million Kuwait dinars, including three million dinars as company’s capital.
The attorney general of Kuwait has decided to imprison the Bangladeshi MP for 21 days in the central prison, according to Arab Times.
The public prosecutor decided to continue the imprisonment of the remaining accused and to release the owner of a company on bail of 2,000 dinars.
News agency BSS adds: a Chapainawabganj inhabitant named Abdul Wadud filed the writ against Harunur Rashid, saying Rashid, who has been convicted and sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment in a graft case, cannot retain his parliament membership as per the rule.
Dhaka 4th Special Judge Court on 21 October 2019, sentenced Chapainawabganj-3 lawmaker Md Harunur Rashid to five-year rigorous imprisonment and fined him Tk 5 million in a case lodged for selling Hummer SUV brought in the country using tax-free facility in 2005.
The court also sentenced accused Ishtiaq Sadek to three-year imprisonment and fined him Tk 4 million and handed down two-year imprisonment to another accused Md Enayetur Rahman (Bappy) and fined him Tk 100,000.
According to the law, no vehicle brought under tax-free facility can be sold within three-years of import. But the BNP leader sold the vehicle way before the end of the three-year time to car trader Sadek, who later sold that to Enayetur.