The recent detention of showbiz model Meghna Alam under Bangladesh’s notorious Special Powers Act (SPA) of 1974 has once again thrust the controversial law into the national spotlight.
Over the decades, the law has remained one of the most heavily debated and misused pieces of legislation in the South Asian nation’s legal and political landscape with many calling it to be scrapped.
Originally introduced just three years after Bangladesh’s victory of bloody independence war, the SPA was framed by the Awami League government under Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The law was ostensibly designed to tackle hoarding, profiteering, and emerging insurgencies in a war-ravaged nation. However, its vague provisions and sweeping powers have since made it a tool for political persecution and abuse across successive regimes.
Between February 1974 and August 1975 alone, nearly 25,000 people were detained under the SPA, according to media reports. A similar number was detained between 1985 and 1987 during the military rule of Hussein Muhammad Ershad.
By one estimate from Showkat Hossain, a judicial officer who said in a 2024 presentation, some 69,010 individuals were detained under the law until the year 2000. Although its use reportedly declined thereafter, rights groups argue that it never disappeared.
According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 600 people were detained or forcibly disappeared between 2009 and 2024. The SPA, which allows for detention without charge or trial, has been widely condemned as a draconian relic of authoritarian rule.
Though all major political parties and rights groups have repeatedly called for its repeal, none have acted once in power — regardless of how they assumed office – either through election or through extra-constitutional means.
The law enables preventive detention based on mere suspicion, circumventing the right to a fair hearing and violating the core principle of natural justice: that no one should be condemned unheard.
Thousands — particularly those with political affiliations —have suffered under its arbitrary application. In numerous cases, the governments have even bypassed High Court bail orders by issuing fresh detention warrants, undermining judicial oversight.
The most recent example is the arrest and continued detention of actress and former Miss Earth Bangladesh, Meghna Alam. Her case has stirred confusion and concern, especially under an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus — an administration that had positioned itself as a reformist alternative to past regimes.
Alam’s alleged offense? A personal relationship with the former Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh, which reportedly progressed to an engagement before she discovered the envoy’s undisclosed marriage.
She later disclosed the affair citing it a cheat to the public. Police later detained her, citing concerns over “interstate relations”—an accusation that many see as legally untenable and politically motivated.
Legal and human rights experts have criticized the arrest.
Asif Nazrul, law adviser to the administration, publicly stated that the arrest procedure violated the law. Yet only two days later, a senior representative of the chief adviser defended the detention as lawful.
Amnesty International condemned the move in a statement on X saying, “The Special Powers Act’s vague, overbroad provisions have historically been used to arbitrarily detain individuals without charge or judicial oversight… These are gross violations of due process and international human rights standards.”
The rights watchdog further urged the government to either formally charge Alam with a recognizable offense or release her immediately — and called for the complete repeal of the law.
Prominent lawyer and rights advocate Sara Hossain echoed the same.
“If reforms are truly underway, the use of such repressive laws is indefensible. Many stakeholders in this government have long opposed these laws — yet are now using them,” she observed.
Economist and activist Anu Muhammad agreed, calling the continued application of the SPA a contradiction.
“The interim government is now behaving just like the regime it replaced. The law must be scrapped without delay,” he urged as he was talking to Times of Bangladesh
Human rights activist Nur Khan Liton added, “the governments fear losing power. That fear drives them to label dissenters as enemies, and use any tool to suppress them.”
Yet, despite widespread criticism, the SPA has not been addressed in reform proposals submitted to the interim administration.
Neither the Constitution Reform Commission nor the Judiciary Reform Commission, both formed after Yunus’s appointment in August 2024, have made any recommendations concerning the law.
Tanim Hossain Shawon, a member of the Judiciary Reform Commission, explained that legal reform was not part of their mandate.
Amending or repealing laws falls under the executive domain, not the judiciary, he said. “Reviewing the Special Powers Act wasn’t within our scope.”
Still, Shawon defended the existence of the law saying, “While abuse must be prevented, repealing the law outright may not be advisable, it serves certain state needs.”
Both the immediate past ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which alternatively ruled the country for decades, have promised in their manifestos to repeal repressive laws, including the SPA.
The AL, in its latest manifesto, pledged to uphold rule of law and human rights. The BNP, in both 2001 and again in its Vision 2030 document, explicitly committed to revoking the SPA.
Yet the law remains.