Government to seek 19th extension!

This rigmarole has gone far enough. Let us back up a little. The separation of the judiciary from the executive was contemplated back in November 1990 when the AL and the BNP actually cooperated with one another in a mass movement against the autocratic regime of HM Ershad. Together with the left alliance, they pledged through a tripartite agreement that the separation would follow the restoration of democracy.

However, neither the first BNP government nor the AL government that succeeded it nor this current administration has fulfilled their pledge to effectuate the separation. Indeed, separation of the judiciary from the executive was a plank of the BNP election manifesto for the 2001 elections and the BNP used the matter as a potent issue with which to fault the AL government. But its own dithering over the self-same issue even after the SC directives demonstrates that it is equally to blame.

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The Law Minister is on record as saying that the government would not seek any further extensions after the latest one. But the very fact that the promise has not been redeemed rakes up the minister's publicly disparaging the urgency of the matter earlier on suggesting that it is not something that is of any great interest to the general public.

Indeed, the government's foot-dragging on the separation of the judiciary from the executive calls into question its commitment to fulfilling its election manifesto pledge. It is pretty clear that the government is either unwilling to fulfill its pledge or suffering from massive inefficiency in complying with all of the SC's directives. Which is it? Isn't time of the essence here?