11 parties reject initiative to amend constitution bypassing referendum process

At a press conference on Sunday noon at the National Press Club auditorium in the capital, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar announced this position.

He said that resolving constitutional differences by respecting the aspirations of the July mass uprising, the July National Charter, and the verdict given by the people in the referendum is the democratic path. He also claimed that reforming the constitution through the ordinary parliamentary amendment process, excluding the process approved in the referendum, is not consistent with the people's mandate.

Mia Golam Parwar claimed that according to the July Charter implementation order, elected MPs were supposed to take two oaths—as members of parliament and as members of the Constitution Reform Council. He noted that although opposition party MPs took both oaths, BNP MPs took oath only as members of parliament. According to him, this matter is one of the causes of the current constitutional crisis.

He remarked that although Article 142 of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to amend the Constitution, this power is not unlimited. At that time, highlighting various rulings of the apex court regarding changes to the basic structure of the Constitution, he mentioned the precedents of the annulment of the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth, and Sixteenth Amendments.

The 11-party alliance has made three demands. The demands are: properly implementing the referendum verdict, implementing the July National Charter and the constitutional reforms approved in the referendum, and making elected representatives members of the Constitution Reform Council through the prescribed process and making the council effective.

At the same time, the alliance called for advancing the reform process based on the people's expectations, the referendum verdict, and political consensus, without taking unilateral initiatives to change the basic structure of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the special parliamentary committee has invited the parties that signed the July National Charter to discussions on constitutional amendment. At the committee's next meeting, besides determining steps on the matter, there are also plans to hold discussions with the judiciary, lawyers, constitutional experts, intellectuals, and editors.

On April 29 last, a proposal was made to form a 17-member special parliamentary committee for constitutional amendment. Later, as the Jamaat-led opposition parties did not provide names of members, a 12-member committee was formed on July 13.