The cabinet has approved a draft law that would make a retired president ineligible for pension benefits if the Supreme Court says his tenure was illegal or unconstitutional.
According to the Daily Star, the 'President's Pension, Gratuity, and Other Privileges Act 2015' was given a final approval in a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The existing 'President's Pension Ordinance of 1979', amended in and effective from 1988, will be replaced by the current law.
The new law will hold effective from 1971 onwards, that which marks the birth of the country, and the presidents who have assumed office since then will be entitled to pension and other benefits.
A cabinet secretary said that after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the military regimes in the country were declared illegal and the High Court had directed the government to deem the ordinances promulgated during those regimes as illegal too, adding that the current law has been drafted in line with this High Court directive.
There are 172 ordinances, of which 91 were promulgated during the period from August 20, 1975 to April 9, 1979 and 81 ordinances from March 24, 1982 to November 10, 1986 under martial regimes.
