Redrawing boundary of Pirojpur-1 and 2 constituencies legal: HC

The High Court (HC) on Sunday turned down a writ petition challenging the legality of redrawing the boundaries of Pirojpur-1 and 2 constituencies by the Election Commission(EC).

The HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam pronounced the judgment.

The court said that the Election Commission redrew the parliamentary constituencies as per the EC rules and there was no violation of rules.

Senior lawyers MK Rahman, Sayeed Ahmed Raja stood for the writ petitioners, Advocate Kamal Hossain Miaji represented the EC and Deputy Attorney General Samarendra Nath Biswas and Assistant Attorney General Abul Kamal Khan Daud stood for the state during the hearing.

Earlier the Pirojpur-1 constituency consisted of Sadar, Nazirpur and Nesarabad upazilas and Pirojpur-2 constituency were consisted of  Kawkhali, Bhandaria and Indurkani upazilas.

Indurkani upazila was included in the Pirojpur-1 constituency and Nesarabad upazila was also added to the Pirojpur-2 constituency.

On June 3 this year the EC issued a gazette notification over the re-drawing of the constituencies.

Later Kawkhali's resident Abu Sayeed Miah, Bhandaria's Md Kaykobad, Md Ahsanul Kibria, Indurkani's Akteruzzaman and Nesarabad's Nazmul Islam submitted a writ petition challenging the legality of the EC's gazette notification.

Fisheries and livestock minister SM Rezaul Karim is the lawmaker of Pirojpur-1 constituency while Jatiya Party lawmaker Anwar Hossain Manju is the lawmaker of Pirojpur-2 constituency.

On 30 July, the HC issued a rule over the legality of the boundary re-drawing the two constituencies.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and others concerned were made respondents to the rule and were asked to respond within two weeks.