B’desh Parliament and Election Commission face legal complexity over declaring murdered MP’s seat vacant

Dhaka: The Bangladesh parliament secretariat and the election commission are faced with a legal complexity over declaring the slain lawmaker’s parliamentary seat vacant if his body is not found, officials said on Monday.

Anwarul Azim Anar, a three-time parliamentarian from the Jhenaidah-4 segment in Bangladesh and also the president of Awami League’s Kaliganj sub-district unit left Dhaka on May 12 to undergo medical treatment at Kolkata, from where he went missing the very next day.

According to the Kolkata police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found.

If his dead body is not found, complications may arise over declaring his parliamentary seat vacant. Officials and legal experts said Bangladesh law requires a by-election within 90 days if any parliamentary seat is vacated due to the resignation or death of a lawmaker.

But they said unless the body of the ruling Awami League lawmaker is found it might cause difficulty in announcing his seat vacated.

“There are instances when lawmakers were killed. But Azim’s murder caused an unprecedented situation,” constitutional expert Shahdhin Malik told reporters.