Muktdesh Desk: BNP believes that many of the recommendations made by the National Consensus Commission to the interim government to implement the July National Charter reflect the demands of Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizens Party (NCP). The party believes that despite BNP being the biggest stakeholder, their views have been ignored in the commission’s recommendations.
Although BNP promised to record its ‘note of dissent’, it has been omitted. BNP is surprised and angry at the incident. The party says that this is tantamount to cheating the people and political parties. By doing this, the Consensus Commission is practically creating discord among the stakeholders of the 24th mass uprising instead of unity. BNP now believes that the Consensus Commission, the government and one or two other political parties are the same party. The party sees these as ‘attempts’ to delay the national elections to be held in February. According to sources in the meeting, such discussions took place in the virtual meeting of the BNP Standing Committee held last Tuesday night.
After long discussions, the political parties signed the July National Charter on October 17, but differences remained over its implementation process. In such a situation, on Tuesday, the commission’s vice-chairman, Professor Ali Riaz, handed over the recommendations for the implementation of the July Charter to the chief advisor and chairman of the consensus commission, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. The government has been asked to issue a constitutional order to implement the charter through a referendum. The recommendation states that after the issuance of that order, a referendum will be held at an appropriate time before the national elections or on the day of the elections. For this, necessary laws will have to be formulated.
The recommendation also states that the next parliament will work as a ‘Constitutional Reform Council’ for the first 270 days (9 months) in addition to its regular work. The proposals passed in the referendum will be incorporated into the constitution within this period. However, if the council fails to complete the reforms within 270 days, the bill will automatically be incorporated into the constitution.
Another member of the party’s standing committee, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, told Kalbela that BNP is the biggest stakeholder in the implementation of the July National Charter. However, none of the BNP’s proposals and recommendations were included in the consensus commission’s recommendations. Rather, they are doing what BNP did not want. The consensus commission has now practically become a ‘disunity commission’. He expressed his anger and said that if the consensus commission did everything according to their wishes, then BNP could have been invited to the commission meeting without being called. Is bluffing BNP and submitting recommendations a sign of consensus?
