The Government announces that 93 percent of the places will be distributed according to acquired merits but reserves the right to alter percentages
21 (EUROPA PRESS)
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Sunday definitively suspended the controversial quota system for civil servants that sparked the deadliest protests in recent years in the country this week, resulting in more than 100 deaths and putting the government of the hitherto untouchable Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in jeopardy.
The old quota system revived last month stipulated that 30 percent of the country’s civil service jobs be reserved for descendants of fighters from Pakistan’s war of independence – a decision critics, led by student organisations, have called discriminatory.
The Government’s Appeals Division, in an attempt to calm things down, asked the Supreme Court to decide on Sunday whether to definitively suspend a system whose return was decided by the court itself.
According to the BBC’s Bangladeshi affiliate, 93 percent of the jobs will now be decided on the merit of the candidates.
Descendants of combatants see the percentage reserved for them reduced from 30 percent to 5 percent. Another 1 percent will be reserved for minorities and the remaining 1 percent will be allocated to the disabled and gender equality.
The Government, however, reserves the right to change these percentages, subject to prior notification to the court.
CURFEW AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT CONTINUE
The country has received this news on a day of “holidays” declared by the Government to mask the curfew still in force and which will extend throughout this Sunday and, perhaps, until Monday, also declared a holiday by the administration.
The NetBlocks website, which specialises in monitoring Internet access in conflict zones, reported on Saturday evening that digital restrictions ordered by the authorities remained in place, “a blackout that continues to hamper human rights observers and independent media at a critical time.”
It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court’s ruling will succeed in appeasing a population that, as the days of protests passed and police repression intensified, extended its criticism beyond the quota system to address the prime minister, who went so far as to describe the protesters with one of the most offensive words she could have used, “Razakar”, the Bangladeshis who joined Pakistan against the separatists.
Humanitarian organisations have also called on the government to launch a thorough investigation into the security forces’ response to the protests, which have left an estimated 113 people dead, according to a still inaccurate count by national media. They are also demanding that the authorities immediately release several activists and opposition politicians detained during the curfew.
In this regard, and accompanying the verdict, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has urged the Government to begin the relevant investigations as soon as possible, as confirmed by the State’s lawyer Shah Manjurul Haque, before expressing his confidence that the court’s ruling would contribute to easing the tension. “I hope that everyone will accept the verdict and that the students will return to their homes,” he said.
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