Eleven Jamaat-e-Islami members of parliament have filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of assigning ministers, state ministers and whips responsibility for specific districts. The petition names the cabinet secretary as a respondent, according to petitioners’ lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir, who confirmed the matter on Sunday morning.

Monir said a similar allocation of district-based responsibilities to ministers, state ministers and whips was made in 2001. When that decision was challenged through a writ petition, the High Court Division declared the responsibility-allocation decision unconstitutional, he said.

A Cabinet Division notification issued on August 27 assigned 30 ruling-party lawmakers, ministers and state ministers to the country’s 64 districts. Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani signed the notification by order of the president. It said those assigned would oversee and coordinate overall government activities without undermining the legal authority of local government bodies and other constitutional and statutory institutions. The notification cited sustainable development, good governance, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption efforts, law and order, and national security among government priorities.