Editorial
Scrap the SPA now
The pernicious law smears our democratic face
The Special Powers Act is the blackest of black laws this country has had the misfortune of living with during the last nearly three decades. Since its insertion into the statute book back in 1974 till today almost 70,000 cases have been instituted under this draconian law. And, in a ringing indictment on the abuse of this law, 99 per cent of the SPA charges were rejected out of hand by the court. Whenever the cases went to the High Court, almost in all instances, as the statistics above suggest, the court found the application of the SPA outside the scope of the law and in breach of the fundamental rights of citizens. That it has been used by successive governments as an instrument of harassment of and exaction of vendetta on political opponents has hardly ever been in doubt. But the abuse of the law boomeranged on governments following the higher court's forceful adjudication of the writs and appeals arising out of the wanton acts of prosecution under the law.
Even misuse of a good law is itself reprehensible and how much more pernicious must be the abuse of a law that has been inherently black in content and character. How could successive elected governments, especially since the restoration of democracy in 1991, allow the SPA, born of the tumult in 1974, to continue. Did they not know it fully well that it's blot on democracy and an impingement on constitutional rights of citizens? They seemed to exult over the fact that they could give the taste of their own medicine to each other in alternating circumstances entirely blind-folded to the resultant erosion of the credibility of a democratic and constitutional government at home and abroad.
So, we fully endorse the good counsel Dr Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International has given to Law Minister Moudud Ahmed to scrap the SPA which is 'an anti-human rights law.'
BNP is the party on whom the onus now rests to take the SPA out of the statute book. It had promised to do so from a position of power between 1991 and 1996 but reneged on it. Thereafter, when in the opposition, BNP put pressure on the AL government to scrap it. And the BNP coming to power on the back of AL's electoral defeat in 2001 caused largely by its abuse of power, should be obliged all the more to annul the SPA.
So, as a proof of its commitment to democracy and to go by its party manifesto, the BNP should scrap the SPA immediately. Let it be the ruling party's new-year's gift to the nation.
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