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Major changes in the Attorney General's office were expected when the new interim government came to power. But at the beginning, the government was happy to just appoint a new Attorney General and Additional AG. But further changes were on the way. It is rumored that a new list of Deputy Attorney Generals and Assistant Attorney Generals is already pending for approval in Ministry of Law and that majority of the law officers will have to go.

The former opposition parties were quite vocal in opposing the appointment of law officers during the last government's term, complaining that they were appointed on the basis of political affiliation. Later, allegation of incompetence also surfaced.

Apparently, the politicization of the AG's office is not a controversy in Bangladesh alone in recent times. Lord Goldsmith has faced immense criticism because of his actions as AG of United Kingdom, specially the endorsement of Iraq war and recent cash for honour scandal. David Pannick, QC writes in
February 27, 2007 issue of Times Online:

"The central questions, then, are whether the functions of the attorney-general could be transferred to a nonpolitical officeholder without undermining the influence of the attorney-general over ministerial colleagues and without removing accountability to Parliament."

He puts some suggestions which I mostly endorse. Although not all of them are applicable to Bangladesh, the fixed tenure and accountability before Parliament is certainly doable. At the end, a balance has to be struck and the burden of responsibility to see that the AG's office remains above political controversy is on the office itself.

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