The emergency powers in Bangladesh: means for subversion of the rule of law?

The Constitution of Bangladesh empowers the President to proclaim an emergency on the actual or imminent ground of war or external aggression or internal disturbance. However, the insertion of ‘internal disturbance’ in the Constitution as a ground for invoking emergency has provided the executive with the opportunity to proclaim all the five emergencies in Bangladesh on this vague ground for purposes other than that of securing the life of the nation. Furthermore, in the absence of any effective constitutional mechanisms for scrutinising the exercise of emergency powers and a time limit on the continuation of a state of emergency, some of the proclamations of emergency continued even after the alleged threat posed to the life of the nation was over to perpetuate the survival of the party in power by repressing any political threat to the regime. This Article, therefore, recommends for insertion in the Constitution of Bangladesh detailed norms providing for legal limits on the wide power of the executive concerning the proclamation, administration and termination of emergency with a view to ensure that emergencies can no longer be resorted to as the effective means of discarding the rule of law.