Staff Reporter:
Chief Adviser’s Special Assistant Professor Ali Riaz yesterday said the government has every right to campaign for “Yes” vote in referendum on July National Charter, calling it a document that came “in exchange of blood”.
“July Charter came through the shedding of blood by martyrs in the 2024 July mass uprising as well as untold sufferings of families of those who were victims of enforced disappearance in more than 16 years,” he said.
Ali Riaz, who co-chaired the National Consensus Commission that drafted the charter added in view of the backdrop of the uprising “the interim government has every right to campaign in favor of a referen-dum based on this Charter”.
He made the comments at a view exchange meeting at BIAM Auditorium in the city as part of a nation-wide campaign for “Yes” vote in the referendum to be held simultaneously with the scheduled general elections on February 12.
Ali Riaz said tears of mothers who lost children “shaped this July Charter” and called it the roadmap for the future”.
He said lives sacrificed by young students, small business owners, and people from various strata of so-ciety have gone into making this Charter.
Riaz acknowledged that some quarters were raising questions about whether servants of the Republic could campaign in favor of a ‘Yes’ vote citing legal grounds.
“There is no prohibition anywhere in the Constitution, existing laws, or the RPO regarding this matter,” he said. He said it was internationally recognized practice to seek support for a government proposal adding different European nations held 48 referendums over joining the European Union since 1972 and in most cases the governments campaigned for “yes” vote.
He said it would be wrong to consider the incumbent administration as an ordinary caretaker government as its moral foundation lied in sacrifices of 1,400 lives and wounds of thousands.
He further said the 13th Jatiya Sangsad will function as a Constitutional Reform Council for the first 180 days.
During this period, it will incorporate the reforms of the July Charter into the Constitution.
Thereafter, it will perform its duties as a regular Jatiya Sangsad, he said.
Chief Adviser’s Special Assistant Monir Haider also spoke on the occasion with Dhaka Divisional Com-missioner Md. Sharf Uddin Ahmed Choudhury in the chair.
