If everything goes as planned, this government has only 23 days left in power. At this point, it is almost certain that the verdict in the Abrar Fahad murder case could not be executed during its tenure.
On March 16 last year, the High Court delivered its verdict on the appeal. Credit is due to the interim government for ensuring the High Court proceedings were completed swiftly. The case is now pending before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, awaiting a hearing.
After running from office to office for days without success, my father returned to Kushtia today. We keep hearing that it takes around 15 days to complete a hearing at the Supreme Court—but then why didn’t it happen?
In simple terms, the reason is that over the past 10 months, there was no time to spare 15 days for this case after prioritising or dismissing political cases. We did not leave a single influential person in the current government unapproached in our request to have this case concluded during its term. At the very least, even one hearing would have meant the process wouldn’t have to start again from scratch. Instead, after repeated assurances, it has now ended with the matter being passed on to the next government.
At different times, we were told it would be problematic to rush the case, or to return later as no appeal had been filed, or that the appeal was filed incorrectly, or to come back after the court vacation, or that preparing the paper book would take time. In the end, we were told the government had run out of time. I don’t even know how many days my father spent running around before coming back to tell me all this—but there is little I can do.
Still, people survive on hope. Let us see whether the next government will give this case the time it deserves.
