The High Court will deliver its verdict in any day on a writ petition filed by Bangladesh Tariqat Federation challenging the legality of Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration as a political party. The three-member special bench of Justice M Moazzam Husain, Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque kept the matter for delivering its order after concluding the hearing on the petition.
Earlier, Barrister Abdur Razzaq, counsel for Jamaat-e-Islami concluded his argument over the petition on Wednesday while Barrister Tania Amir, who stood for the petitioner also concluded her submission in the meantime.
On January 27, 2009, a High Court bench led by Justice ABM Khairul Haque issued a rule on the Election Commission and the ameer and the secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, asking them to explain why the registration of Jamaat as a political party should not be declared to have been done unlawfully and ultra vires to the Constitution.
Tariqat Federation secretary general Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri and 24 followers of the federation filed the writ petition on January 25, 2009, within days of the Awami League-led government taking office.
On November 4, 2008, the EC registered Jamaat as a political party under the Representation of the People Order, 1972.
According to petition, Jamaat’s registration could be cancelled under Section 90C of the RPO as it violates certain Articles of the Constitution of the Republic and the Proclamation of Independence and its Preamble.
The petition said that Jamaat had no eligibility to be registered as a political party as it did not fulfill the requirements stipulated in Section 90C of the RPO.
Section 90C(1)(b) of the RPO, as amended in 2008, stipulates a political party will not be qualified for registration if its constitution is in any way discriminatory on grounds of religion or gender.
The petition said that Jamaat’s constitution was discriminatory to non-Muslims as well as many practising Muslims and women with regard to its membership, which was a violation of the fundamental principles of the Constitution of the Republic.
It said that a political party did not qualify for registration if its name, flag, symbol or activities threaten to destroy national communal harmony in an attempt to divide the country and also distort the Republic’s constitutional and religious values.
-With The Independent input
