The High Court on Wednesday asked ruling Awami League lawmaker Aslamul Haque to appear before it on May 16 to explain his position on the allegation that he had grabbed a piece of government land owned by the Mirpur Government Bangla College in the capital.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Jahangir Hossain also ordered Dhaka’s deputy commissioner to conduct a survey on the piece of land after setting up an expert committee. The bench asked for the report along with relevant papers by May 16.
The court also asked the government and the police to explain in two weeks why their failure to protect the piece of land should not be declared illegal.
It also asked the respondents to explain why they should not be directed to recover the land from the possession of Aslam, the lawmaker for the Dhaka 4 constituency.
The court passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition
filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh that challenged the failure of the authorities in protecting the piece of government land.
The writ petition was filed following a report published in Bangla daily newspaper Bangladesh Pratidin on May 5 headlined ‘Four bighas of Bangla College land now in Aslam’s possession.’
Mentioning the report, the organisation’s lawyer Manzill Murshid told the court that Aslam had taken possession of the land from the Bangla College authorities forcefully and illegally by abusing his power as lawmaker.
He also alleged that the land had been grabbed without resistance from the college authorities.
After hearing the allegation, the court also heard pro-Awami League lawyer Yusuf Hossain Humayan, also a presidium member of the party, who became unhappy about the allegation. ‘It is very unfortunate and painful.’
The court observed that such people were putting the government in trouble.