545 Ordinances of Martial Law Regimes
Examination task falls on parliamentary body
The onus to examine and seek experts' opinion on 545, now void, ordinances promulgated during past two martial law regimes now falls on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Law Ministry.
This is due to the fact that the ministries, which implement the ordinances, did not examine and come up with bills to replace those.
The observations came in reports, placed by the committee in the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday, scrutinising two bills the law minister placed in parliament on February 19 to replace two ordinances.
The president promulgated the two ordinances on January 21 to continue operation of the 545 ordinances.
The committee did not get the adequate time required to carry out the duties as the president's two ordinances cease to have effect tomorrow, said the report.
The committee also drew the Speaker's attention to the crucial point of being given too little time to scrutinise the two bills and requested to be granted necessary time.
Through the 5th and 7th constitutional amendments, all actions, including promulgation of the ordinances of the martial law regimes by Gen Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, were ratified and validated.
The House in June 2011, after the Supreme Court declared the amendments illegal and void, deleted the two amendments' provisions through the passage of the 15th amendment. But in the last 19 months, the law ministry did not take any step in this regard.
Amid such a situation, the committee seemed to have found no alternative but to give consent to the passage of the two bills.
The committee, however, expected that the ministries concerned would examine the ordinances and come up with separate bills to replace those which need to be kept.
Aiming to avert criticism, the committee recommended new provisions in the bills, saying passage of the bills would not be considered as giving confirmation and ratification to any action done by the illegal and unconstitutional martial law regimes.
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