Iajuddin Ahmed - Chief Adviser of The Caretaker Government

Chief Adviser of The Caretaker Government

There were 6 options to appoint Caretaker Government's Chief. First option was immediate first Chief Justice (CJ) K M Hasan. As per provision, Justice Hasan started recruiting advisers and presidency was ready to give him oath of Chief Advisor (CA) but later he could not overcome the pressure of Awami League and refused to take this responsibility, which further deteriorated Bangladesh political situation. Following this development, Presidential Adviser organised President's dialogues with four major political parties representing parliament and as they did not come to an agreement on the appointment of Chief Adviser considering other 4 options. The 2nd option was immediate past to the first immediate first CJ and he was Justice Mainur Reza Chowdhury, who died in the mean time. 3rd option was last retired two Justices of the Supreme Court: Justice M A Aziz and Justice Hamidul Haq. Justice Aziz was Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) at that time. Awami League did not accept him as CEC and so on CA. On the other hand, Justice Haq was disqualified as he was appointed Chairman of Judicial Training Institute by immediate past BNP government.Besides, holding office of profit is a disqualification to be the CA. Moreover, BNP opposed him as CA, which made this option exhausted. In the option 5, Justice Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury's name came up, who retired before Mainur Reza Chowdhury. BNP opposed him as Awami League opposed K M Hasan. Parliamentary Adviser of Khaleda Zia was against him. However, move against him was seriously implemented by Political Secretary to outgoing PM. Thus this attempted failed. Recently Khaleda Zia realised that decision was wrong. Thus 5 option was exhausted and last option was President to take over.

Ahmed was sworn in as the Chief Adviser of the Caretaker Government at 8.00 pm (Bangladesh standard time) on October 29, 2006 after the main political parties failed to agree on a candidate. This move created controversy as the opposition parties alleged that the constitutional guideline on recruitment of the Chief Adviser was not properly followed. He was supposed to serve in an interim capacity to oversee the forthcoming elections, planned for January 22, 2007, while remaining president. The Awami League, headed by Sheikh Hasina, and its allies opposed Ahmed as head of the caretaker government, alleging that he favoured Khaleda Zia and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and demanded his resignation from this position. President ruled out the possibility of resignation. The Awami League and its allies announced that they would boycott the election. Four important advisors of his caretaker cabinet resigned in December 2006, accusing the Chief Adviser of making the decision of Army deployment while ignoring the advisor council's recommendation against it. In this situation, President's Advisor Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury went to Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia and after successful negotiation he brought all parties to President for dialogue and finally they participated in polls on 26 December for 22 January 2007 election. However, General Moeen and his associates foiled the elections when H M Ershad's nomination was canceled, which was another conspiracy, and a section of political parties withdrew en mass from the elections on 3 January 2007 and that was followed by a state of emergency, a planned conspiracy of Moeen group