Staff Reporter:
National Consensus Commission Vice Chairman Professor Dr Ali Riaz yesterday urged political parties to demonstrate flexibility and make necessary concessions in the greater national interest to accelerate the formulation of the upcoming “July Charter.”
He made the call at the outset of the discussion while delivering his introductory speech. The meeting began at 10:40 am yesterday at the Doel Hall of the Foreign Service Academy in the capital with Ali Riaz in the chair.
The commission discussed the proposed structure of the National Constitutional Council (NCC), as out-lined by the Constitution Reform Commission, and considered renaming it the “Appointment Committee for Constitutional and Statutory Institutions” due to the lack of consensus among political parties.
Ali Riaz said the revised committee will be chaired by the Speaker of the Lower House. The proposed commission will have 7 members.
He said the members of this committee will be the Prime Minister, the Speakers of the Lower and Upper Houses, the Leader of the Opposition, a representative of any other party, a representative of the Presi-dent and an officer of the Appellate Division nominated by the Chief Justice. And it will be chaired by the Speaker of the Lower House.
Ali Riaz further said that the initial proposal had included the President and the Chief Justice as mem-bers of the National Constitutional Council (NCC). However, they will not be part of the revised and newly proposed committee. The committee will be responsible for overseeing the appointment process of all constitutional and statutory bodies, excluding the appointments of the Attorney General and the chiefs of the three armed services, he added.
The Vice Chairman said that yesterday’s discussions will also focus on defining the fundamental princi-ples of state governance. He noted that on Sunday, political parties expressed differing views on what those core principles should be.
On this day, although almost all parties expressed agreement with the proposed principles of the Com-mission, BNP, Jamaat and other few rightist parties proposed incorporation of “faith and belief in Allah” removing secularism. Besides, few left leaning parties including CPB, BASAD proposed incorporating the Commission’s proposed principles alongside the existing four state principles. In this regard, the NCP expressed complete opposition to retaining the four principles included in the 1972 Constitution.
As a result, the issue remained unresolved that day, which is scheduled for further discussion yesterday.
Before going for lunch break yesterday, representatives of several political parties told media that discus-sions on all these issues are underway. The media will be informed about this after further discussions.
Representatives of 30 political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), National Citi-zens Party (NCP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam, AB Party, and Ganasanghati Andolan, are participating in the political discussion yesterday.
