Writ challenges recommendation to exclude female UNOs from FF guards of honor
If the recommendation is published in the form of a gazette notification then an order will be given in this regard, the HC says during the hearing.
A writ petition has been filed in the High Court (HC) challenging the recommendation of the parliamentary committee to exclude female UNOs from providing guards of honour for deceased freedom fighters.
During the hearing, the court said, "The matter was only a recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee. If such recommendation is published in the form of a gazette notification then the necessary order will be given in this regard. So we will have to wait until then."
The bench of Justice Mojibur Rahman Miah and Justice Kamrul Hossain Mollah on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the writ petition for four weeks.
Advocate Fawzia Karim appeared in court for the writ petition and Barrister Kazi Maruful Alam assisted.
Advocate Fawzia Karim told the court that the parliamentary standing committee sometimes gives decisions that sound like they are issuing fatwas. The court adjourned the hearing for four weeks.
Barrister Kazi Maruful Alam, director of the law and research department at the Foundation for Law and Development (FLAD), a human rights organisation, filed the writ petition.
Three people, including secretary of the liberation war affairs ministry and chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on liberation war affairs ministry, were made defendants in the writ petition.
In the writ petition, the petitioner also sought a HC ruling upon concerned government authorities concerned, as to why the recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee should not be declared discriminatory, unlawful, and illegal.
The parliamentary standing committee on liberation war affairs ministry on 13 June at a meeting, recommended replacing female Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) to provide 'Guard of Honor' to the deceased heroic freedom fighters.
The committee said upazilas where the UNO is female, the responsibility should be assigned to a male officer, an assistant commissioner (land), upazila education officer, upazila agricultural officer, or any such officer, as an alternative.
Arranging for awarding guards of honor during daylight hours was also recommended.
