Rights body Odhikar yesterday strongly protested moves to repeal several key ordinances issued by the interim government and urged the government to immediately pass them in parliament instead.
In a statement, the organisation said a parliamentary special committee recommended revoking four ordinances.
These are the Supreme Court Judges Appointment Ordinance 2025, the Supreme Court Secretariat Ordinance 2025, the Supreme Court Secretariat (Amendment) Ordinance 2026, and the National Parliament Secretariat (Interim Special Provisions) Ordinance.
The committee also suggested not placing 16 important ordinances as bills at this stage, Odhikar said.
These include the July National Charter Implementation Order 2025, the ordinance expanding the powers of the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Prevention of Enforced Disappearance Ordinance, and the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance.
If they are not placed as bills, the ordinances will be treated as repealed and lose effect after April 10, according to the statement.
Odhikar said 68 percent of people voted “yes” in the referendum. It also alleged that the special committee recommended the repeal, ignoring notes of dissents from opposition lawmakers.
It said that during Sheikh Hasina’s long rule, state institutions were deliberately turned into subservient partisan bodies, resulting in judicial harassment, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, torture, and other forms of repression against opposition leaders and activists, dissenters, and citizens.
The rights body added that although BNP and Jamaat leaders and activists, as well as dissenters, faced widespread repression during that period, the then National Human Rights Commission remained silent. During the interim government period, however, an ordinance was issued to strengthen the commission, it added.
The statement also alleged that the ACC had been used during Hasina’s regime to suppress opponents and target individuals and institutions with dissenting views.
Citing remarks by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, Odhikar said $234 billion had been laundered abroad during Hasina’s rule and argued that these ordinances needed to be turned into law.
It said cancelling these important ordinances would amount to an attempt to take institutions back to the model of subservient bodies that existed under the previous government.
Referring to the recommendation for revoking the ordinance on enforced disappearances, Odhikar said many leaders and activists of the BNP alliance had themselves been victims of disappearance during the Hasina regime.
It noted that three victims who returned, as well as the wife of a disappeared person, were later elected lawmakers. However, the families of those who never returned continue to live in deep uncertainty.
Odhikar said the recommendation was a grave injustice to victims, their family members, and the people of the country. It urged the prime minister to stop the repeal process and immediately ensure passage of the ordinances in parliament, saying that no country can move forward without human rights and good governance.
