The 11-party alliance led by Jamaat-e-Islami has rejected the move to amend the constitution through a special parliamentary committee, bypassing the process approved in the referendum.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s secretary general, Mia Golam Parwar, said so at a press conference in the National Press Club auditorium in the capital on Sunday afternoon.
He said the democratic path was to settle constitutional differences with respect for the aspirations of the July uprising, the July national charter and the verdict the people gave in the referendum.
Mia Golam Parwar said that under the order implementing the July Charter, elected MPs were to take two oaths — one as a member of parliament and the other as a member of the constitution reform council. Opposition MPs took both oaths, but BNP MPs took the oath only as members of parliament. In his contention, that is where the main element of the present constitutional crisis arose.
He said that although the national parliament is a creation of the constitution, the sovereign power of the people is final when it comes to a fundamental rearrangement of the constitution. Taking the matter into the ordinary parliamentary amendment process, setting aside the procedure approved in the referendum, is not consistent with the people’s mandate.
Noting that although article 142 of the constitution gives parliament the power to amend it, that power is not unlimited, he said various judgments of the highest court had made clear the limits on changing the basic structure of the constitution through an ordinary amendment. He cited the precedent of the striking down of the fifth, seventh, eighth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments.
The 11-party alliance made three demands: that the verdict of the referendum be given proper effect; that the July national charter and the constitutional reforms approved in the referendum be implemented; and that elected representatives be made members of the constitution reform council through the set procedure so that the council can function.
It also called for any one-sided move to change the basic structure of the constitution to be abandoned, and for the reform work to be taken forward on the basis of the people’s expectations, the verdict of the referendum and political consensus.
Leaders of the 11-party alliance were present at the press conference.
The special parliamentary committee meanwhile invited the parties that signed the July national charter to discussions on amending the constitution on Friday. The committee’s second meeting on Sunday was due to decide the next steps on the matter. There are also plans for discussions with the judiciary, lawyers, constitutional experts, intellectuals and editors.
The government proposed forming a 17-member special parliamentary committee to amend the constitution on April 29. A 12-member committee was formed later, on July 13, after the Jamaat-led opposition did not give the names of members.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report