Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon has been relieved of his post in the pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum (Nationalist Lawyers Forum, or NLF), where he was serving as senior vice-president. .
The action was taken against him for taking charge as the newly elected president of the SCBA for the 2024-25 term, having won the post through an election that was nevertheless renounced as illegitimate by the opposition at large. Overall, the pro-AL panel won 10 of the 14 posts that were up for grabs, including the post of general secretary.
But the top post of president, and three other committee posts, were won by the pro-BNP panel's candidates. Mahbub Uddin Khokon himself renounced the election, even after being announced as the winner of the presidency. That did leave the matter of whether he would ultimately take up his post in the air, and create room for speculation.
Eventually the NLF called a joint meeting on March 24, and passed a resolution that no member of the body, i.e. Barrister Khokon and three others elected as committee members to run SCBA, would refrain from taking up the posts that they happened to come by via a farcical electoral process.
The decision of the NLF was communicated to Khokon and the others individually, in letters dated March 27.
Yet in what can only be described as open defiance of the decision of the NLF, Barrister Khokon did take charge as the elected president of the organisation on April 4. Notably, the other three elected to committee posts did follow the forum's diktat.
"It means he is guilty of ignoring the BNP lawyers body’s restriction pronounced in this regard, and thus violating its discipline as well," the NLF said, in a press release signed by its office secretary Md Ziaur Rahman.
The letter mentioned that although the victory of the entire panel put forward by the NLF was certain in the SCBA elections held on March 6-7, "only Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon was declared the SCBA president and three others were shown winners in member posts in a bid to justify the rigged polls."
Voting for the SCBA election was held on March 6-7, to elect a new executive committee for the 2024-25 period.