Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed on Thursday reaffirmed his party’s opposition to ‘secularism’ — a fundamental principle in the existing constitution — and rejected the proposed inclusion of ‘pluralism’ in it by the Constitution Reform Commission.
He made the remarks following a dialogue between the BNP and the National Consensus Commission held at the LD Auditorium of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka.
Salahuddin led a five-member BNP delegation to the meeting, which was chaired by NCC vice-chair Ali Riaz.
At a press briefing after the dialogue, Salahuddin said his party recommended adopting the fundamental principles of state policy as outlined in the fifth constitutional amendment, which had remained in place until the 15th amendment.
On April 6, 1979, the BNP-led second parliament removed ‘secularism’ from the 1972 constitution through the fifth amendment, inserting ‘absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah’.
The Awami League-led ninth parliament later passed the 15th amendment on June 30, 2011, restoring secularism. On August 5 last year, the student-mass uprising ousted the Awami League government after 15 years in power.
The Constitution Reform Commission, in its full report that was made public on February 8, recommended adopting equality, human dignity, social justice, pluralism, and democracy as the state’s fundamental principles.
‘In today’s discussion, we agreed in principle to equality, human dignity, and social justice. After further discussions in our party forum, we will take our final decision,’ Salahuddin said.
He added that the BNP delegation discussed the commission-proposed recommendations concerning the constitution’s preamble, the nature of the republic, the constitution’s fundamental principles, and fundamental rights of the people.
‘After exchanging views, we were close to reaching consensus on several issues,’ he said, without details.
However, he expressed concern over the commission’s proposed amendment to Article 70, which would allow parliamentary debate by party-nominated members on all issues except money bills.
‘This proposal, if passed, will destabilise a government,’ he said, adding that the BNP recommended limiting voting rights except on money bills, confidence votes, constitutional amendments, and national security.
He also noted the BNP’s continued opposition to the proposed referendum clause.
The Constitution Reform Commission proposed that any constitutional amendment should be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of a bicameral parliament and then put to a referendum.
‘A referendum is not necessary for every amendment,’ Salahuddin argued.
He criticised the NCC’s method of gathering opinions from political parties by spreadsheet-based multiple-choice questionnaire.
While on a break during the dialogue, Salahuddin said that any recommendations by the reform commissions must be ‘constitutional’ before being implemented.
He questioned issuing the Supreme Court Judges Appointment Ordinance without amending Article 95 of the existing constitution. Raising concern over the proposed formation of the Supreme Court Secretariat by the interim government, he stated that it has yet to receive constitutional approval.
As part of its efforts to build consensus on key recommendations by five reform commissions, the NCC began dialogues with political parties on March 20. As of Thursday, the NCC held dialogues with 10 parties.
The dialogue between the BNP and the NCC began at 11:00am and continued till 5:00pm. Salahuddin said his party would hold another meeting with the NCC on Sunday to conclude their discussions.
NCC vice-chair Ali Riaz said that while the BNP disagreed with several reform proposals, it also agreed to a number of points.
‘The aim of the NCC dialogue is to minimise differences and we hope to achieve that,’ Riaz said, without providing details.
