The interim government has constituted six commissions and the names of six commission chiefs have also been announced. The Information and Broadcasting Adviser said that there will be a commission on media reform as well. After the announcement of the formation of six commissions, there have been demands for the formation of commissions on media, medical and education. Education and healthcare are both major sectors; As a result, there is a justification for this claim. Before fleeing, the previous government had also set up a commission to investigate the massacre; There is no more noise about it now. A commission has also been formed to investigate the disappearances by the government forces - High Court judge Mainul Islam Chowdhury is the head of the commission. Debapriya Bhattacharya, head of the 12-member committee formed to prepare a white paper depicting the overall economic condition of the country; The head of the committee said that the committee will also report on corruption in the financial sector. One can say, the commission's success is going on now.

There are six commissions at a glance, Badiul Alam Majumdar led electoral system reform commission, police reform led by Safar Raj Hossain, justice department reform led by Justice Shah Abu Naeem Mominur Rahman, Dr. Anti-corruption reform under the leadership of Iftekharuzzaman, Public Administration Reform under the leadership of Abdul Mueed Chowdhury, Constitutional Reform Commission under the leadership of Ali Riaz (first Shahdeen Malik). The Chief Minister has fixed ninety days for the work of the commission.

This is undeniable, this society as well as state and government needs various reforms. Beyond the six issues announced by the Commission, there is a wider scope. It will come again, how much reform will be possible for an unelected government that is not elected by people's vote. Broadly speaking, two things can be said about the reforms - firstly, whether the interim government as an unelected government will go towards all necessary reforms or whether it will be appropriate or whether the government will take that much time or not. Secondly, how much time will the political parties in the run-up to the elections give this government to reform? The main task of the unelected-apolitical caretaker governments of 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2007 was to hold an election and step down, although the 2007 government took slightly longer. But this time the interim government will not just have to go through an election; Rather, elections should be held after reforms in some cases. Each of the six commissions will have multiple recommendations. The question is whether the interim government will go towards implementing all those recommendations. It is relevant to say here that the army chief gave an idea about the tenure of the government. Again, the explanation has been discussed. Elections within eighteen months, or eighteen months after reform! Even if the commission can give a report by December, how long is the time for reform in that light! The government is not budging on this.

People have high expectations from this government in short time and in reality people are not very eager for elections. But there is a public desire for many things. It is the people's desire that this interim government fulfills that expectation rather than the elected government. Election reform is needed; Because, in the fifteen years of the previous government, there have been three major setbacks, namely the collapse of the electoral system, widespread corruption and partyization at all levels. The issue of partisanship at all levels has also hit the polls and the rest will go to the Administrative-Police Reforms Commission. There is virtually nothing left in the electoral system at the national and local levels. People have lost interest in voting. Organizing fair and acceptable polls can only make people vote. For this, reforms will be needed at all levels of voting, including the Election Commission. The Election Commission should be freed from the submissive status of the government in the true sense. There will be a proposal to prepare all the machineries involved in the polling for fair polling on the recommendation of the commission. It must be said that in the local government elections, there is a need to get out of party-based nominations and party-based elections. It is not understandable why all the people of the country should be drawn into politics. In this case, Awami League had bad intentions. The atmosphere of village-Bangla has destroyed the culture due to party-based election of union, upazila and municipality. The head of this commission Mr. Badiul Alam Majumdar has been talking about this for a long time, so the public will be waiting.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the slogan of development administration was raised loudly, but the public administration, police and other administrative sectors could not be people-oriented. Rather, the quality of service has fallen everywhere; In some cases, the service seekers are being harassed, being treated with indifference. Police services have further deteriorated. On the whole, there is no way to call bureaucracy people-friendly. But their facilities are increasing. In this situation, the government workers have been brought under the party umbrella for the past fifteen years or the government officials themselves have rushed to that umbrella. There is one to understand. The 2018 election was done by bureaucrats. It is said that even though the chief of police played the role, the public administration and also the employees of all sectors played the drums. The current woes of bureaucrats after the fall of a government have not been seen in the past. When did the police retreat like this? As a result reforms and massive reforms will be needed. But how much and how long will it be possible to change the current law of public administration and police!

Muayid Chowdhury is a committee reporter on land and land registration; Although there were some excellent recommendations in that report, they were not implemented due to the objections of the sub-registrars. Mueed Chowdhury is a CSP bureaucrat who passed the Qualification-Experience-Integrity test. Many people fear that the implementation of the CSP model will be difficult if the public administration reform recommendations are adopted. On the other hand, former Home Secretary Safar Raj is expected to make good recommendations. But if it is not compatible with the existing laws and regulations of the bureaucracy, the laws and regulations will have to be changed. When and when will it be?

The work of the Commission will not be clear if the scope of work of the Anti-Corruption Commission is not issued. Corruption can be reduced only by existing anti-corruption laws. The goodwill of the commission is needed. ACC needs to be kept out of government control. Whatever the commission recommends, corruption will not go down even if a government does not want to. ACC, tax and customs intelligence cell and various intelligence agencies are currently in the depths of corruption. So? The same can be considered in the case of judicial reform. It is necessary to review how much progress has been made in this department after judicial separation. The government said there was no interference. People saw the exact opposite picture. How to resolve this disagreement? If the Ministry of Law is out of control, the court will blow, so what? Questions have been raised about various orders of the High Court. It has been said that there was government intervention, or negligence on the part of the government. Still, there is no end to the interest in this reform. It must be said that the court-kachari is a place of suffering for people, where there is no timely settlement of cases. These are what people want. If even one of these is eliminated - the commission will be worthwhile.

Before the start of work on constitutional reform, various opinions have come up. Specifically, the head of the commission talked about rewriting the constitution. Mr. Ali Riaz's speech did not come like that after the name was announced as the head of the commission. There are debates about rewriting the constitution, or overt changes, or necessary reforms or reform of electoral clauses. Surely the members of the commission will accept the opinions of many people. But the pains of rewriting a constitution are manifold, the procedure is also complicated. One more election in the presence of a parliament, an interim government system during the election, etc. may be the necessary changes in some matters. The matter will be more clear in the discussion with the political parties. The big question is, it is not clear how exactly a government without a parliament will amend or reform the constitution. Can the constitution be amended with the doctrine of necessity?

The big demand of the July coup is to abolish dictatorship, corruption and discrimination and stay out of party system. By implementing various recommendations of six or more commissions, the interim government may have implemented some of the people's expectations, but if the next political government does not want it, this reform is very important so that everything cannot be returned to the previous state by the force of the majority. Because, for fifty years, the nation is used to seeing the character of the political government. Between 1972 and 2024, no political government could deliver the desired electoral system. All were desperate to cling to power. As a result, if there is a reform, I want that reform so that it does not change the political reform - otherwise, gourd and pumpkin are the same; No matter what vessel and how it is cooked. It must be remembered that another July coup will not happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. So now is the right time.

Mohammad Abdul Mannan: Retired Additional Secretary and Essayist