Law commission chief blasts proposal to give executive powers to president

Law Commission chairman Justice ABM Khairul Haque has blasted a civil society proposal advocating enhanced executive powers for the president.

The suggestion had been made by Centre for Policy Dialogue chief Rehman Sobhan and a few other members of the civil society at a discussion on ways to avert repeated spikes in confrontational politics ahead of national polls.

Law commission chief blasts proposal to give executive powers to president

The former chief justice pointed out that people were the source of all power in a democracy. “You cannot just handover state power to someone.”

He maintained that the present Constitution assigned powers to each and everyone and any increase in the president’s power would amount to a constitutional violation.

“Nobody except the people’s representatives should exercise state power - not even the first citizen, the president.”

He said the power should remain with those accountable to the people. “Since parliament is a representation of the people, we show our accountability through them.

“We tend to forget that the people own the country and that the Constitution is their directive.”

In this context, Khairul pointed out, the president would have to be elected by the people if the post is to be given executive powers.

Only a constitutional amendment could make that possible but the change itself would run counter to the very basis of the Constitution, the former chief justice said.

The Law Commission chief cited the rule of two military strongmen Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad.

“That was seditious and cannot be welcome,” he said, adding that such provisions fan tendencies to usurp power, and that people would do well to learn from past experience.

He offered a different perspective to highlight the flip side of such changes.

“An MP election contestant spends crores (10 million) of Taka in a constituency. In this context, a presidential contender will have to spend a few hundred crores. Who will provide that money?

“…It is easy to say something, but this system will be totally ineffective for our country.”

Khairul pointed to the world’s biggest presidential democracy, the US. “Thousands of companies donate to the presidential election fund. The big ones then influence the president’s policies, something that is completely undesirable.”

The chief justice said the Westminster system of democracy currently in place in Bangladesh had worked well for India with a population of 1.5 billion for 70 years. “There is no reason why it should not work for us.”

He called for a smoothening of the glitches through proper practice. “There will be problems at the start. There is nothing to panic.

“We should think about how we can make parliament more effective,” he said and urged the civil society to come up with meaningful suggestions.