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Interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, also the chair of the National Consensus Commission, and representatives of the political parties and alliances concerned will sign the July National Charter 2025 on October 15.

In a text message on Thursday, the consensus commission confirmed the matter, adding that the commission vice-chair Professor Ali Riaz will accompany the chief adviser during the signing ceremony on the Jatiya Sangsad South Plaza premises at 3:00pm.


The commission took the decision in a meeting on Thursday at the JS compound with Ali Riaz in the chair amid differences of opinions still prevailing among political parties over the method of execution of the July Charter and the date of the proposed referendum on it.

Earlier on Wednesday, the commission held its final meeting session with 30 political parties to finalise the charter execution method.

As the parties failed to agree on the matter in the seven-hour long meeting beginning at 3:00pm on Wednesday, the commission decided to provide the interim government with a ‘comprehensive’ solution package recommended by its expert panel and the political parties.

In the post-meeting press briefing, Professor Riaz said that the commission would  submit a complete report, compiling the recommendations from the expert panel and political parties, to the interim government in a day or two.

However, several parties having dissenting notes on the charter, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Wednesday that they would decide about their presence in the charter signing ceremony after reviewing the NCC report.

‘The responsibility of settling the charter execution method lies with the interim government. We will review the development in our party forum,’ said Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasod presidium member Mushtuq Hosain and Socialist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz.  

NCC insiders said that three-fourths of the 30 political parties submitted the names of their representatives to attend the signing ceremony.    

According to Ali Riaz, the panel of jurists made a five-step recommendation that would include the issuance of a special order to facilitate a referendum on implementing the July Charter.

The referendum would ask two questions whether a voter supports the charter with dissents or without dissents.

Regarding the adoption of the charter, the panel recommended the formation of a constitution reform council to work alongside the 13th Jatiya Sangsad.

Finally, the reform proposals outlined in the July Charter must be incorporated into the constitution within a defined timeframe.

In the Wednesday meeting, political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its like-minded allies, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Jasod, Ganosamhati Andolan, Jamiat Ulama e Islam, SPB, Amar Bangladesh Party and SPB (Marxist) recommended holding the referendum simultaneously with the 13th national elections.

Meanwhile, other parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Khelafat Majlis, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis and Nezam e Islam Party sought the referendum before the Jatya Sangsad elections.

However, the commission observed that all the parties agreed that the next Jatiya Sangsad should be empowered to make structural changes in the constitution as outlined in the July Charter, Ali Riaz said.

Earlier, the parties during the NCC’s fourth session of the third round dialogue on October 5 overwhelmingly agreed on a referendum while discussing the execution of the charter.

According to its terms of reference, the commission presented the 84-point July Charter on September 11. However, the date of signing the charter had not been finalised till Wednesday as several parties were demanding the finalsation of the charter implementation method.

On Wednesday, BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed, partially deferring the expert panel’s recommendations, said that the interim government might issue a gazette notification as the July Charter Implementation Order.

‘Then a superior ordinance may be issued instructing that the government will hold a referendum to get the peoples’ mandate for adopting the July Charter,’ he said, adding that the next parliament would need not play a dual role because the referendum will empower it to adopt the charter.

He repeated his party stance for holding the referendum simultaneously with the national elections.

On the contrary, Jammat senior nayeb-e-amir Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher said that his party recommended a referendum by November or before the national elections planned for early February 2026.

He said that the upper house issue, as outlined in the July Charter, needed to be decided before the national elections.

The consensus commission meanwhile began working on February 15. Till October 8, the commission hosted three rounds of dialogues with more than 30 political parties.