Bangladesh apex court stays order on Chittagong councils

DHAKA - The Bangladesh Supreme Court Thursday stayed a high court verdict that annulled the councils coordinating development work and maintaining law and order in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) - home to Buddhist indigenous people.

The high court earlier this week declared as illegal and unconstitutional the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council Act, 1998, under which the councils were formed.

The court stayed the order for six weeks and asked the government to file its reply.

The regional councils for Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban districts have been working for the past decade under the law enacted following a peace accord signed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her earlier tenure.

While not passing a verdict on the peace accord, the high court had held that the councils violated the unitary nature of the country’s constitution.

Working of the regional councils was integral to the peace accord and the peace process aimed to give autonomy to the country’s indigenous people, the government told the apex court.

The accord was signed to end years of insurgency. Most of the provisions remain to be implemented.

The CHT was allotted to the then East Pakistan by the British on India’s independence in 1947.

The region has witnessed violence among the settlers and the Buddhist settlers. Last February, hundreds of houses were burnt down and places of worship vandalized.