By DPA
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s local administration apparatus is under threat of imminent collapse as the country’s military-backed interim government sets out to create an independent judiciary, separate from the executive, officials here said Monday.
The process, which the interim government says will strengthen democracy, is expected to start from Nov 1, but has spread uneasiness among judicial officials who fear curtailed authority and loss of seniority to colleagues and new recruits.
“If the interim government presses on with the implementation of the policy of separating the judiciary, then the local administration will be halted,” said senior magistrate Rokonud Dowla at a meeting in Dhaka Monday.
About 180 people were recently appointed as judicial magistrates and charged with carrying out the initial task of cutting out a free and non-partisan judiciary from the existing employee structure.
Officials in the administrative cadre have for decades been enjoying both judicial and executive powers simultaneously, turning many civil bureaucrats into power barons.
As a retaliatory move, the aggrieved officers in the administration cadre have warned of possible work stoppages.
The virulent reaction to the policy shift was inflicting severe damage to the prestige and credibility of the courts, said senior bureaucrat Maniruzzaman Khan.
President Iajuddin Ahmad appointed the interim government in January amid escalating violence in the wake of a stand-off between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the two biggest political organizations in the country.