Govt. constitutes five reform commissions

The government has constituted five reform commissions to make the country’s electoral process, police administration, judiciary, anti-corruption watchdog and public administration more people oriented, accountable, efficient and neutral.

The cabinet division issued separate gazette notifications to this end following the Council of Advisers’ meeting held at Chief Adviser‍‍`s Office here on Thursday.

Each of the five commissions will have representation of the students. But their name is yet to be announced.

According to the notifications, the commissions will start function from October 3 and submit their reports to the Chief Adviser within next 90 days.

In his address to the nation on September 11 last, Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus announced the formation of six commissions to reform the electoral system, police, judiciary, public administration, the Constitution and the anti-corruption body.

Electoral reform commission will be led by Badiul Alam Majumdar while Safar Raj Hossain will lead the police reform commission, Justice Shah Abu Naeem Mominur Rahman will be the head of judiciary reform commission, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman will lead the anti-corruption reform commission and Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury will lead the public administration reform commission.

Full formation of the commissions are as follows:

Election System Reform Commission: Head: Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar of SHUJAN, Citizens for Good Governance, will lead the commission. Members: local government and election affairs expert Dr Tofail Ahmed, former additional secretary of the Election Commission (EC) Secretariat Jesmin Tuli, election expert Md Abdul Alim, political analyst Dr Zahed Ur Rahman, institutional reform expert Mir Nadia Nivin, electric voting and blockchain expert Mohammad Sadek Ferdus and a student representative.
 
Police Reform Commission: Head: Safar Raj Hossain. Members: Additional Home Secretary (public security division) Abu Momtaj Sad Uddin Ahmed, Director General of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) Mohammad Iqbal, former divisional commissioner Mohammad Harun Chowdhury, former additional inspector generals of police Sheikh Sajjad Ali and Md Golam Rasul, Dhaka University Law Department Professor Shahnaz Huda, human rights activist ASM Nasiruddin Alan and a student representative.

Judiciary Reform Commission: Head: Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominir Rahman, a retired judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Members: Retired High Court judges Justice Emdadul Haque and Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli; Syed Aminul Islam, former district and sessions judge and former registrar general of Bangladesh Supreme Court; Masdar Hossain, former district and sessions judge; senior SC lawyer Tanim Hussain Shawn, Kazi Mahfuzul Haque Supan, associate professor of law department at Dhaka University and a student representative.

Anti-Corruption Reform Commission: Head: Executive Director of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Dr. Iftekharuzzaman. Members: former comptroller and auditor general Masud Ahmed, Dhaka University Public Administration Professor Dr Mobasser Monem, Prof Mostak Khan of University of London, Barrister Mahdin Choudhury, law department Professor of Dhaka University Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, Supreme Court lawyer Farzana Sharmin and a student representative.

Public Administration Reform Commission: Head:
Former adviser of the caretaker government Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury. Members: former secretaries Mohammad Tarek and Mohammad Ayub Mia, Senior Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry Dr. Md Mokhles ur Rahman, former additional secretaries Md Hafizur Rahman and Rizwan Khayer, Dhaka University Public Administration teacher Prof Aka Firowz Ahmad and a student representative.