DHAKA:  A writ petition was filed Monday with the High Court challenging the cancellation of the declaration of daily Amar Desh, opening a legal battle over the most discussed matter with Bangladesh press in recent times.

Anwarul Nabi, the acting Chairman of Amer Desh Limited company, filed the writ with the bench of justices Najmun Ara Sultana and Sheikh Hasan Arif.
 
The government scrapped the declaration of the daily newspaper on June 1 following a complaint filed by its publisher Hashmat Ali Hashu in a controversy-fraught situation.

In no time thereafter, its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman--who made his mark with his pugnacious remarks, writings and deeds close to opposition BNP political circles—was arrested in an overnight siege to the newspaper office.               

According to the complaint, Hashmat resigned from his post on October 11, 2009.

“Despite an order from the DC office on October 26 in the same year, his name has been used in the printer`s line of the newspaper as its publisher,” says the plea before the court.

The hasty shutdown of the vernacular daily threw some 700 journalists and employee of the newspaper out of job, the staff members and management lamented.      

BDST: 1400 Hrs, June 7,2010
JA/PB/LY/MUA