That non-party caretaker government in Bangladesh which was usurped by the President, citing emergency, has now arrested fourteen (13?) political leaders, including nine former ministers.
The caretaker conventions are that the government not conduct any policy and hand over the Cabinet once elections are held. The caretaker government is only for the temporal period that the government in power has its legitimacy in question while the country goes to the ballot boxes. Once certainty of democratic legitimacy is returned with the election result, the government elected takes over from the caretaker government.
Nothing says rule of law and civil order like a state of emergency:
The state of emergency bans political activity and gives security forces sweeping powers to detain anyone without warrants.It appears that the politicians arrested were from the two major parties, so it may be the President making a play on removing the parliament as a house for the legislative and executive. If that is the case the Non-party caretaker clause has been used to give a ceremonial president absolute powers. It should be noted that the President did not follow the constitution in order to appoint himself Chief Advisor of the caretaker government. He used a claim of a state of emergency to do so.
