Dhaka, Apr 1 (PTI) A dispute between the ruling BNP and the main opposition Jamaat over a controversial presidential order widened in Bangladesh, leading to the opposition’s walkout from parliament on Wednesday.
The presidential order, officially called the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, issued during the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government’s term, requires an amendment to the existing constitution.
A referendum on the presidential order was held alongside the general elections on February 12, and was approved by over 60 per cent of voters.
It became the centre of a row after the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), holding a two-thirds majority, refused to table it in parliament.
The ruling party called the order “unconstitutional”, alleging that President Mohammad Shahabuddin was forced to issue it under duress during the interim regime, going beyond his authority.
“This (President’s order) is neither an ordinance nor a law. It may be something of a ‘neutral gender’ — an ‘endless document of deception’ by the interim government,” Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told the House in the presence of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
Ahmed said before the order’s signing, he had asked the largely titular president, “Can you issue such an (unconstitutional) order? and in reply, he said – ‘No, can’t, but they (interim regime) are getting it done by me’”.
Ahmed also called it a “document of national fraud”.
This was BNP’s first such criticism of the Yunus regime.
According to analysts and observers, the party had earlier refrained from criticising its actions to avoid upsetting it before the February 12 elections.
“The countrymen’s verdict (in plebiscite) has not been evaluated. The opposition party is not going to accept this disrespect,” Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman told the House ahead of the walkout.
The July Charter required an amendment to the existing constitution, and the BNP argues the president could issue no order defying the constitution and obligate the “sovereign parliament” to implement it.
Earlier, analysts speculated that the 13th parliament session might witness an impasse due to widening differences between BNP and its once-long-term ally Jamaat over the referendum.
The plebiscite was aimed at obligating the parliament to implement the July Charter, which comprised a series of complex reforms mainly demanding that the constitution be rewritten.
The referendum, which many jurists called “unconstitutional”, also sought the new parliament to implement the reform proposals within 180 days.
The BNP said only an elected parliament could decide if or how the July Charter could be incorporated to amend the constitution, a stance that annoyed the Jamaat.
Nearly half of the 84-point July Charter proposals demanded Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution be rewritten, creating a Constituent Assembly by the parliament to enact the changes and formally recognise the 2024 uprising in the new constitution. PTI AR GRS GRS GRS
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