Staff Reporter:
National Consensus Commission (NCC) Vice Chair Prof Ali Riaz said on Wednesday that the Commis-sion will submit its final recommendations to the government by October 10, with the goal of enabling political parties to sign the July National Charter 2025 by October 16.
“The Commission will hand over its final recommendations to the government by October 10. There is a target to complete the formal signing of the July National Charter by the political parties on October 15 and 16,” he said.
Prof Riaz said this in his introductory speech while chairing the fifth meeting of the Commission with political parties on the implementation of the July Charter, held at 3:00pm at the Foreign Service Acad-emy in the capital.
He said the issues raised as “notes of dissent” by political parties must also be taken into account.
“The issues that have come as ‘notes of dissent’ in the July National Charter need to be considered. We don’t think all of them can be treated equally because those who have given such notes did so from their respective positions. We hope these reflect not only partisan interests but also broader considerations,” he said.
The NCC Vice Chair said these differing opinions should be clearly presented to the people, when seek-ing public consent through a referendum.
“We have to make sure that when people give their consent, they do so knowing that some political par-ties have reservations on certain issues,” said Prof Riaz.
The NCC vice chair said the Commission aims to finalise its proposal for the government after reviewing all opinions and objections submitted by the political parties.
“If you can come up with a clear and specific proposal from your side, the Commission will place it be-fore the government and will recommend its implementation,” he said.
Prof Riaz said the Commission has already achieved a basic consensus among the political parties on holding a referendum for the implementation of the July National Charter and is now working to finalise the framework.
“We have made significant progress in this effort as we have been able to reach a common ground on the issue of holding a referendum,” he said.
Some 30 political parties, including BNP, Jamaat and NCP, attended the discussion to finalise the im-plementation procedures of the July National Charter.
