I am standing on the ruins: Chief Justice

              Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed. Photo: Collected

Chief Justice Syed Refat Ahmed said, ‘In the past 15/16 years, our sense of justice and the values ​​of justice have been destroyed and distorted in the judicial process. Oppression instead of justice, deceit instead of honesty, torture instead of shelter, deprivation instead of rights were made normal. But we do not want such a social state.

The Chief Justice said this at a citizen conference titled ‘People-Participated Reforms for Good Governance, Aspirations of Underprivileged Communities’ at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center today. The event was organized by the Citizen Platform for SDG Implementation, Bangladesh in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and UNDP.

Stating that during the Awami League regime, merit was not valued without loyalty, Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a research institute, and convener of the Citizen Platform for SDG Implementation, said, "Let me use one word, kleptocracy. That is, how crony capitalism has reached the state of theft. But the biggest damage that was done to us during that period was that there was no recognition of merit and talent without loyalty. Only flattering and loyal people occupied various positions in the state, government, society, and professional organizations. There was no recognition of merit and their knowledge. There can be no greater crime than holding a nation back."