BNP standing committee member, Moudud Ahmed, has said that the 15th amendment to the Constitution will be repealed if his party is voted to power in the next general election. “The Awami League has destroyed the Constitution’s purity and dignity, by bringing the 15th amendment. We will annul this amendment if voted to power,” he said. He was addressing a meeting on “Constitutional crisis and the country moving towards inevitable confrontation”, organised by the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Samabai Dal, at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Friday. Describing the 15th amendment as controversial and anti-constitutional, Moudud said it had been done only to gain petty political mileage. The ruling party did not believe that the Constitution had been framed to safeguard the interests of the people, he added.
“The Awami League has taken all possible measures to hang on to power. But their efforts will fail in the face of a mass movement,” he
warned. The former law minister said the government had fallen into its own trap by bringing the 15th amendment. It was now conspiring to bring another amendment to cling to power, he said.
“We are carrying out an anti-government movement to restore the dignity of the Constitution and to ensure that the next general election is held under a non-party caretaker government (CG),” he said.
The BNP would extend its cooperation if the government placed a bill in the upcoming session of Parliament, scheduled for September 12, to restore the CG provision to the Constitution, he added.
“We will wage a nationwide movement if the government initiates its plan to prolong its stay in power by amending the Constitution,” he added.
Clearing his party’s stand on the CG issue, he said not only the BNP but other like-minded parties would never allow any election under the Sheikh Hasina administration.
“We, along with the people, will put up a strong resistance across the country to prevent the government from holding the general election under its pet management,” he said.
The government had earlier said that it would hold the election before the dissolution of Parliament; later, it said it would hold the poll without dissolving it. “But both are impossible now,” he added.
“To make its mission a success, it is hatching a new conspiracy to stay in power even after its tenure ends on January 25,” he said.
At a separate discussion, another BNP standing committee member, Rafiqul Islam Mia, criticised the Election Commission (EC), saying it could not keep the Jamaat-e-Islami away from any election on constitutional grounds.
On August 1, the High Court passed a judgment declaring the registration of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami “illegal and void”. The court said the Jamaat’s organisational charter contradicted the Constitution.
“It is a sub judice matter. The EC has no constitutional authority to keep the Jamaat away from the election,” he said, adding that the ban on the organisation was the outcome of political vengeance.
The Youth Forum organised the discussion on “Politics of vengeance and the future of democracy” at the National Press Club on Friday.
-With The Independent input
