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Bangladesh Deprives Hindus of Property Rights

Enemy (Vested) Property Act of Bangladesh is a successor to the Enemy Property Act, 1965 of Pakistan. Before commencement of the Indo-Pak war in 1965, Pakistan declared emergency and promulgated Defence of Pakistan Ordinance on Sep 5, 1965. Under this ordinance, the Pak govt assumed powers to make rules for ensuring security, public safety and defence of Pakistan, and also for securing maintenance of public order. On the same day, the Pak govt framed Defence of Pakistan Rules. Rule 17 of this ordinance authorized the appointment of Controller of Enemy Funds, and Rule 182 authorized the govt to appoint a Custodian of Enemy Property and to order vesting of property in them for preventing payment of money to an ‘Enemy Firm’, and preserving the ‘Enemy Property’. Thereafter the Governor of the then East Pakistan issued a notification ordering that all lands and buildings and other movable properties of the enemies would vest in the Custodian of Enemy Property.

After the Indo-Pak war of 1965 came to an end, the very purpose of vesting the enemy property in the Custodian became defunct but the emergency which was imposed in 1965 continued to remain in force till 1969 when the Pak govt made formal declaration of revocation of the state of emergency stating that the grounds on which emergency was proclaimed ceased to exist. Consequently the Defence of Pakistan Ordinance and Rules also ceased to exist. But, before revocation of emergency, the Pak govt promulgated Enemy Property (Continuation of Emergency Provisions) Ordinance, 1969.



After the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, a Presidential Order named Law Continuance Enforcement Order, 1971 was promulgated. Under this order, all Pakistani laws which were found consistent with the sovereign status of Bangladesh were allowed to continue to remain in force. Judged from this point of view, there was hardly any justification for continuance of the Ordinance of 1969 which was enacted in view of the then prevailing state of war between India and Pakistan. Moreover, Bangladesh came into being by waging a war against Pakistan and was not a successor to the state of Pakistan or its assets and liabilities. But the said ordinance of 1969 continued to remain in force in Bangladesh virtually reducing the new country to the status of a client agent of Pakistan.