No bar to serving as GCC mayor

Staff Correspondent: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a High Court (HC) order that stayed the suspension order of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Mayor MA Mannan for three months, clearing the way for him to serve as GCC mayor.

A three-member SC Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order on Sunday.

Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon moved for mayor Mannan while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state in the court.

Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Mannan's lawyer, told risingbd.com that after the SC verdict, there is no legal bar for Mannan to hold the office.

Earlier on July 9, the High Court stayed the suspension order of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Mayor MA Mannan for three months.

Prior to this, Mannan filed a writ petition with the High Court (HC) challenging legality of his temporary suspension order issued by the local government and rural development (LGRD) ministry.

On July 6, the LGRD ministry issued a notification suspending GCC mayor M A Mannan temporarily as he was indicted in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Mannan, an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, became the mayor beating an Awami League-backed candidate by around one and half lakh votes in the elections held on July 6, 2013. He assumed office on August 18 the same year.

Police on February 11 in 2015 arrested Mannan for his suspected involvement in an arson attack on a bus in Gazipur on February 4.

The next month, panel mayor, local Awami League leader Asadur Rahman Kiron, who was elected a councillor in the city corporation polls, was made acting mayor upon a court directive. He has been holding the post since then.

Mannan was released from jail on March 2, 2016. However, he was rearrested on April 15 the same year. The BNP leader was released again on this January 7.

The LGRD ministry suspended Mannan on April 18 last year after a court accepted a charge sheet in a criminal case filed against him.

Following a writ petition, the HC later stayed the suspension order.

30 cases were filed against Mannan after becoming the mayor. Of them, two were corruption and one was an extortion case. The rest were filed on charges of sabotage.

Of the 30 cases, charge sheets were submitted only in five cases and the mayor was suspended based on two of them.

risingbd/Dhaka/July 16, 2017/Mehedi/Amirul