The National Consensus Commission will send a refined draft of the July National Charter 2025 to political parties in a couple of days.
NCC vice-chair Professor Ali Riaz on Thursday evening told 抖阴精品 that the commission had planned to share the document with political parties 鈥榳ithin a day or two鈥�.
The charter would contain three parts: the prologue to or the background of the reforms, the agreed reform issues, and the covenant.聽
Earlier, on July 28, the NCC presented the initial draft of the charter to 30 political parties.聽
The draft charter only mentioned the background of the reforms, including the profiles of the six reform commissions covering the constitution, the electoral system, the judiciary, public administration, the police and ACC, and the NCC.
As part of its charter-drafting efforts, the consensus commission on July 30 presented to 30 parties 62-point proposals that were agreed by a majority of those 38 parties that attended its first-round dialogue between March 20 and May 19.
The key points that received majority support include adopting Bangladeshi nationalism, recognising all languages in use alongside the state language Bangla, and defining Bangladesh as a state of multiple ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures.
The majority parties also agreed to a bicameral parliament, a deputy speaker from the main opposition in the parliament, presidential impeachment with two-thirds approval from both the chambers of the parliament, local government elections under the Election Commission, the formation of district coordination councils with local representatives, and extending the application of the Right to Information Act 2009 to the political parties.
Judiciary reforms in the package included an independent Judicial Appointment Commission for Supreme Court judges, a Supreme Court secretariat, a permanent Attorney General鈥檚 service, an independent investigation body, and a judicial code of conduct.
Public administration reforms agreed by majority parties were the formation of an independent commission to investigate the 2024 mass killing and past vote riggings, a permanent Public Administration Reform Commission, and amendments to the Official Secrets Act 1923.
For the Anti-Corruption Commission, the majority parties agreed to the amendment of the constitution鈥檚 article 20(2) to curb misuse of power for illegal wealth accumulation, appointing an ombudsman, legislation on beneficial ownership, curbing money laundering by people from among the high strata of the government, ensuring transparency in election expenditure and bringing private sector corruption under punitive measures.
During the second-round NCC dialogue between June 3 and July 31, 30 parties reached complete consensus on 11 recommendations and expressed dissent on nine, the latest NCC report shows.
The fully agreed recommendations and those with dissent would be included in the July National Charter for the endorsement by the political parties, said Professor Riaz.
The agreed proposals include opposition lawmakers chairing four parliamentary standing committees, a legally defined delimitation committee for determining parliamentary constituencies, a legally defined body for deciding presidential clemency, decentralising the judiciary, requiring cabinet approval for a state of emergency, a 10-year term limit for the prime minister, limiting constitutional amendments, appointing the chief justice from the senior Appellate Division judges, forming an independent police commission, embedding the Election Commission appointment process in the constitution, and expanding the citizens鈥� basic rights.
Issues with dissent include amending Article 70, restricting the prime minister to hold multiple offices, embedding appointment procedures for the Public Service Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General, and the ombudsman in the constitution, gradual increase in women representation to 100 seats in the parliament, creating a 100-member upper house, lawmakers鈥� secret ballots to elect the president, presidential powers, a parliamentary selection committee to select the chief adviser for a caretaker government, and the mention of equality, social justice and human dignity as the state鈥檚 fundamental principles.
In an earlier draft, the covenant part had points that the signatory parties pledge to fully implement the charter鈥檚 provisions within two years of the next parliament鈥檚 formation.
However, the NCC vice-chair told news media that the covenant part would be changed in the final version.
According to a news report, the covenant would bind the signatory parties to ensure that the charter must be prioritised over the existing laws.
