Major political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, are set to miss the deadline for submitting their feedback to the National Consensus Commission鈥檚 multiple-choice questionnaire on key reforms.
The deadline expires today.
Most of the parties said that they would take time to submit their feedback while some of the parties said that they would issue statements instead of submitting answers to the NCC questionnaire at all.
The Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad and the Islami Andolan Bangladesh said that they would submit the answers to the NCC questions today.
The NCC, formed led by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on February 12 to adopt reform commissions鈥� proposals through consensus among the political parties, on March 5 sent 166 multiple-choice questions to 34 political parties and alliances, seeking their answers by March 13.
The NCC questionnaire sent to political parties requires them to place a 鈥榯ick mark鈥� to indicate whether they agree, partially agree or disagree with 166 specific recommendations.
It also seeks their views on whether the proposed reforms should be implemented via ordinance or referendum before the national election.
Alternatively, it seeks opinions on carrying out reforms through a referendum during the election, a constituent assembly, post-election constitutional amendments or through elected assembly and parliament members.
BNP standing committee member Salah Uddin Ahmed said, 鈥極nly answering the multiple-choice questions using tick marks will create confusion. That鈥檚 why we will review all the recommendations by six reform commissions to answer the questions and submit a review report to the commission within a few days.鈥�
Six reform commissions on constitution, electoral, police, judicial, public administration and Anti-Corruption Commission submitted their full reports to the interim government on January 15.
The reports were made public on February 8.
Salah Uddin Ahmed said that the BNP would consider the political perspectives of its allies in finalising the party鈥檚 review report on reform proposals.
Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Mia Golam Parwar said on Wednesday that his party leaders discussed the NCC questionnaire but were yet to finalise the answers.
鈥榃e will sit on Thursday to chalk out the answers. Hopefully, we will send our feedback in two to three days,鈥� he said.
Newly flouted National Citizen Party joint convener Sarwar Tushar said that his party leaders had discussed the questionnaire but would not send the answers to the NCC today.
鈥榃e will respond to the NCC in a few days,鈥� Sarwar said.聽
The multiple-choice questionnaire, however, irked several politicians in the left block. They said that political consensus would not be created by answering only a set of multiple-choice questions.
Some of them said that the NCC could host a series of discussions with political parties regularly instead of sending a questionnaire.
Iqbal Kabir Zahid, the coordinator of the Left Democratic Alliance, said that seeking political parties鈥� 鈥榯ick-mark鈥� answers on the crucial reform proposals seems inappropriate.
鈥榃e will not submit the answers to the multiple-choice questions. But, we will send a joint-statement of the left parties on the reforms soon,鈥� Iqbal said.
LDA is an alliance of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist), the Biplobi Communist League, the Ganatantrik Biplobi Party and the Samajtantrik Party.
CPB general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince on Wednesday said that his party would issue a statement on overall reforms after a few days instead of answering to the NCC questions.
Gana Adhikar Parishad faction general secretary Rashed Khan said that the NCC was not active in lessening the distances among the political parties, which, he believes, was more crucial than knowing answers to a set of multiple-choice questions.
鈥楬owever, we will respond to the NCC soon,鈥� Rashed said.
Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad presidium member Mushtuq Husain said that his party had already prepared the answers and would send them to the NCC today.
The Islami Andolan Bangladesh secretary general Yunus Ahmed Sheikh said that his party would also submit the feedback to the NCC today.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, NCC vice-chairman Professor Ali Riaz said that the commission would hold a series of dialogues with political parties soon after receiving their feedback.
The NCC is assigned to draft a political consensus-based 鈥楴ational Charter鈥� by July 15.