Editorial
Presidential prerogative
Why the hoopla?
It would not be wrong to suggest, reading the statements emanating from both the AL and the BNP, related to the granting of Presidential pardon to a convicted murderer, that a good deal of them are misleading. There have been comments justifying as well as criticizing the act of pardon. However, what one finds quite reprehensible is quoting of precedents by the AL in justifying the act on the one hand, while the BNP, on the other hand, quite unwilling to draw any similarity with an oft-quoted pardon granted to a fugitive by it during the BNP's tenure in office in 2005, terming that as fully constitutional.
We had commented on the issue of presidential pardon on July 22 in this very column, and we are constrained, given the importance of the matter, to revisit the issue once again.
The president has exercised his prerogative to mercy as per the constitution and he has done it on the government's recommendation. It goes without saying that such a provision demands that the privilege is exercised most prudently and that those in the government and the president apply their judicial mind. Presidential prerogative is meant to be exercised as an exception and not as matter of common practice, as seems to have been done.
The recent episode has besmirched a pristine institution, that of the office of the President. The ministerial justification appears rather puerile and appears to be a futile effort to defend an indefensible position.
By not waiting for the process of justice to run its course, since the matter was still pending with the Appellate Division, the process of justice has been subverted inexorably. And the rule of law has been mercilessly trampled by the fact that the government did not seek a retrial of the case even after having apparently come by evidence of extraneous pressures to influence the trial process, according to the state minister for law.
What is most regrettable is that the office of the president which had become fairly controversial has been made even more so by the recent act of pardon.
While efforts should have been to keep the office and the person of the President above all controversies, instead, both are being dragged further into partisan dispute.
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