The Appellate Division will take up today (Wednesday) the hearing on the petition of the government seeking another four months for separating the judiciary from the executive. The Attorney General's (AG) office on behalf of the government Monday filed an application in the Supreme Court in this connection, reports BDNEWS. The Supreme Court had earlier given 12-point directives to separate the judiciary from the executive. On October 20, 2005, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a government petition seeking four months' time for separating the judiciary from the executive as per the Supreme Court's 12-point directive. The government has already sought time extension 22 times to implement the 12-point directive of the Supreme Court for the purpose. The Appellate division, on October 20, 2005, had fixed February 1, 2006, for hearing of the contempt rule issued by the apex court against nine bureaucrats on charge of distorting the judgment of Masdar Hossain versus Bangladesh case popularly known as judiciary separation case. The Supreme Court on November 29, 2004, had issued the contempt rule upon nine officials for distorting the judgment of the Masdar Hossain versus Bangladesh case. The nine accused officials were joint secretaries of the Establishment Ministry Lokman Hakim, Badrul Alam Tarafdar and Md Abdur Rab Hawlader, its Deputy Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad Chowdhury and Senior Assistant Secretary Md Khalilur Rahman, Deputy Secretary of the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Shafiqul Islam Talukder and its senior Assistant Secretary Mohammad Harunur Rashid and Deputy Secretaries of the Cabinet Division Md Fazlul Huq and Finance Ministry AKM Motaleb Hossain. Expressing annoyance over the government's delay in implementing the directives of the court in separating the judiciary from the executive, the apex court had refused to exempt nine bureaucrats from the contempt charge. Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed Sunday told a press conference that the government would seek another four months' time to the Supreme Court to comply with the SC directives for separating the judiciary from the executive. "We will seek another four months on some technical points relating to separation of the judiciary from the executive on February 1. Separating the judiciary is an administrative and structural problem for the government," he said.
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