Bangladesh top court trims job quota scheme following deadly student protests

The court also called for protesters to return to class

Armed Bangladeshi soldiers stand guard outside the Supreme Court in Dhaka, Bangladesh. EPA

Bangladesh's top court on Sunday partially scrapped the controversial job quota scheme that triggered the country’s deadliest street violence by students after ruling that a previous lower court order was illegal.

"The supreme court has said the high court verdict was illegal," Attorney General AM Aminuddin was quoted by the news agency AFP as saying, after the special hearing at the top court that was originally scheduled for August.

The top court ruled that 93 per cent of jobs will be now filled on merit, while setting aside seven per cent for specific categories, including five per cent for the children of the freedom fighters, who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, and one per cent each for small tribal groups and physically challenged people.

More than 150 protesters, mostly students, were killed in clashes with police since Tuesday when violence escalated over demands to cancel the scheme that granted some 54 per cent of the highly-sought after government jobs to specific groups.

Thousands of soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital Dhaka and other big cities as a nationwide curfew remained enforced, amid a communication and internet blackout to stem the protests against the government.

The court also appealed to the protesting students to return to class.

The High Court last month reinstated the quota system that granted a 30 per cent job quota to children of veterans of the country’s independence war – introduced in 1972 by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who led his country’s fight for independence from Pakistan.

The system was scrapped by Ms Hasina’s government in 2018 following a student protest.

The High Court order sparked small student demonstrations that quickly spread to other universities across the country and turned violent when demonstrators clashed with the student wing of Ms Hasina’s ruling party.

Students have argued that the reservation system was discriminatory and jeopardises the livelihood of millions of youths struggling to find jobs as the country’s unemployment rates cross eight per cent.

Since Tuesday, at least 151 people, including several police officers, have been killed in clashes around the country, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

The government banned public rallies and issued “shoot-at-sight” orders to quell the protests that have brought the entire country to a grinding halt, media reports said.

Authorities extended the curfew to 3pm on Sunday, until after the Supreme Court hearing, and will continue for an "uncertain time" following a two-hour break for people to gather supplies, local media said.

Ms Hasina has declared Sunday and Monday as public holidays, with only emergency services allowed to be operational.

Critics said the reservation benefits children of pro-government groups that back Ms Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fifth consecutive term in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Ms Hasina's government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

She inflamed tensions this month by likening protesters to “Razakars” or the Bangladeshis who had collaborated with Pakistan during the country's independence war.

She said that her government agreed with students’ demands but was unsuccessful in calming protesting students who were demanding a legal amendment against the quotas.

The protests are gradually turning into anti-government protests amid fears that tensions will simmer on the streets despite a favourable court verdict.

"It's not about the rights of the students any more," business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, told AFP at the scene of a Saturday street protest, held in the capital Dhaka in defiance of a nationwide curfew.

"Our demand is one point now, and that's the resignation of the government."

The country’s main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has backed the protesters and vowed to organise its own demonstrations. Many of their supporters have joined in the students' demonstrations.

On Friday, police fired tear gas at a few hundred BNP supporters, and arrested senior BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, news agency Reuters reported.

The US State Department warned Americans on Saturday not to travel to Bangladesh and said it would begin removing some diplomats and their families from the country due to the civil unrest.

While Ms Hasina has been largely credited for turning the country’s economy around and has worked on reducing poverty, critics and political rivals have accused the leader of authoritarianism, and suppression of dissent.

Bangladesh, once considered a poor country, has reported economic growth at an average of 6.25 per cent annually over the last two decades. Its GDP growth has surpassed that of neighbouring India.

Its poverty rates declined from 11.8 per cent in 2010 to 5 per cent in 2022 based on the international poverty line of $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.

But the country has a persisting job crisis.

About 40 per cent of youth in Bangladesh are neither working nor studying at universities, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.