DHAKA: Another big bunch of 1500 cases are going to the designated panel Sunday for bundling out in the process of clearing the decks loaded mainly during the past emergency rule.        

Official sources said the latest load of cases will be placed before the National Committee for Withdrawal of Political Harassment Cases in its 20th meeting.

The committee has already recommended a total of 5,539 cases for withdrawal out of 8,430 preliminarily listed, including two cases of senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman and former law minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed of the opposition BNP.      

All the other cases were filed against leaders and workers of the ruling Awami League-led grand alliance during the two past regimes—the BNP-led four-party coalition and the subsequent caretaker government installed following the 1/11 changeover amid a grave political crisis.

The present government formed the committee for a review of the cases that it thinks were filed with political “motives to harass politicians” during the four-party alliance regime and the army-backed caretaker government.  

A seven-member committee chaired by the State Minister for Law was formed at the national level and one each for district level with four members led by the district magistrate on February 22 last year.

The committee extended time for submission of cases by the district-level committees several times as the date expired on 31 May 2009.

The main opposition BNP alleged that the committee is dealing with and withdrawing only the cases filed against the pro-Awami leaders and activists.

However, the chief of the committee denied. Advocate Qumrul replied: “We are evaluating pros and cons of all the cases. Since the district levels did not recommend many cases, we could not deal with them.”

BDST: 1925 HRS, JULY 3, 2010.