Forty-two eminent citizens have condemned Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh’s recent remarks about a former chief justice and civil society members, saying that they were hurt, aggrieved and shocked by such remarks.
In a joint statement issued yesterday, they called the attention of the country’s apex court to this matter.
Citing a report published in a national daily, the eminent citizens said while speaking at an event of a lawyers’ association on May 21, the DSCC mayor “threatened” to put civil society members in a sack and release it into the black water of the Buriganga. He also made objectionable remarks about the removal of a chief justice.
Such comments by the mayor are undoubtedly tantamount to “insulting the country’s apex court”, read the statement.
“We have no words to condemn his indecent and objectionable remarks. By making such remarks, he essentially gave the message that the political party he belongs to is desperate for establishing its control over the country’s judiciary like it did over the others.”
By making such comments, he not only dishonoured the judiciary, senior lawyers and the civil society, but also disrespected his own professional position and educational background, said the eminent citizens.
The signatories to the statement include rights activist Sultana Kamal, former adviser to a caretaker government Rasheda K Choudhury, former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder, rights activists Khushi Kabir, Hameeda Hossain, Shamsul Huda, and Nur Khan, minority community leader Rana Dasgupta, economist Prof Anu Muhammad, women rights activist Shirin Haque, anti-graft campaigner Iftekharuzzaman, jurist Shahdeen Malik, political scientist Prof Ali Riaz, Prof Asif Nazrul, Prof Gitiara Nasreen, rights activist Sara Hossain, and good governance campaigner Badiul Alam Majumdar.
