DHAKA: While Bangladesh’s judiciary has been freed from the corrosive influence of the bureaucracy and the political establishment, it remains to be seen how the momentous change will work to dispense real justice to the people.

In a historic ceremony in Dhaka, on Thursday, Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of the interim government, and Chief Justice Ruhul Amin officially announced the historic separation of the judiciary from the executive.

Henceforth, instead of the government, the Supreme Court will appoint all lower court judges and judicial magistrates and hold them accountable. Earlier, these judicial functionaries were chosen by the Establishment Ministry, and the judges reported to the government.

Describing the changed situation in his speech Amin said that judicial functionaries would now wield power ‘’which is actually not a power but a pledge to wipe off tears caused by injustice’’.

In a ruling, eight years ago, the Supreme Court had asked the government to take measures to separate the judiciary from the executive organ. But the governments of two former prime ministers — Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia both now in jail on corruption charges — failed to do so during their tenures.

But neither the political parties nor the bureaucrats were sincere about giving independence to the judiciary, which was observed to have suffered from serious erosion in public confidence because of political pressure and interference from the executive branch.

The job was left to the interim government of Ahmed, a former World Bank economist, who took power with the backing of the military following bloody street violence between the supporters of the two main political rivals over the conduct of the general elections that was scheduled for January this year.

Late October more than 600 administrative officials rallied in Dhaka to make a last-ditch effort to scuttle a decision that would deprive them of the judicial power they had been enjoying since British colonial times.

But, according to the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) M. Amir ul Islam, at least 13 of the bureaucrats, including four top secretaries, are now facing contempt-of-court charges for distorting the Supreme Court ruling and impeding the separation process.

The SCBA has demanded disciplinary action against officials showing disregard to the Supreme Court judgment and the provisions of the constitution.

Reflecting the difficulties in overcoming the vested interests, the country’s military chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, who plays a key role in Ahmed’s government, said: “If the judiciary is not separated right now, it will never happen.”

The country has been under a state of emergency ever since the interim government took office and President Ahmed, who is committed to hold free and fair elections late next year, has said he would first complete a drive against corruption and effect a handful of urgent reforms.

Speaking with IPS, Kamal Hossain, the eminent jurist who helped draft Bangladesh’s constitution and served as foreign minister in the cabinet of the country’s founder-president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said the demand for an independent judiciary went back to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1972, following a bloody civil war.

“As we drafted the constitution of Bangladesh in 1972, it was clearly stated that the judiciary should be separated from the executive organ of the state,” Hossain said. “Initially we couldn’t implement it because of the shortage of manpower immediately after the (civil) war and the process stopped after the changeover in 1975 when Bangabandhu (a popular name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) was assassinated in a military putsch.”

Hossain explained that the existing magistracy was first established in 1872 during the British rule when the magistrates were put under the executive so that the colonial government could have direct control over it.

Government officials who held judicial responsibilities as magistrates did not want to relinquish their power and political parties were not keen to lose their ability to harass political rivals, Hossain said. “It (separation) has been possible now as there is no political party in power.”

“We have to monitor and see how far the judiciary can dispense justice to the people and reduce their woes,” said Hossain. ‘’Theoretically, the people should benefit from a judiciary that is able work freely and independently, but there is still a need to evolve a system within the judiciary to check corruption and undue influence.”

One of Bangladesh’s leading legal experts M. Zahir said that because of the mindset of the people working in the judiciary, it might take some time before true separation is achieved. “Unless the people in the judiciary feel that they were truly independent in dispensing justice it might hamper the process,” Zahir said. He feared that there could be a manpower shortage because the magistrates with the executive branch would now no longer be available for the dispensation of justice.

But overall the mood in the country was a welcoming one. Nurul Kabir, editor of ‘New Age’ a leading English-language said: ”A society or a state can never be democratic without an independent judicial system and now the first step of an independent judiciary has been implemented, meeting the long-cherished demand of the people.”

In a published article, former chief justice Mostafa Kamal summed up popular expectations: “People of our country do not want to enter into the complexity of who is conducting a trial, a man from the administration or a man from the judiciary. They want that there be no harassment, bribery and corruption; and that cases are disposed of quickly, and there is a just judgment.” —Dawn/IPS News Service