The National Consensus Commission and its panel of experts on Thursday decided to recommend issuing the July Charter Implementation (Constitutional Reforms) Order for a proposed referendum on measuring people鈥檚 mandate for the proposed reforms.
In a meeting at the consensus commission office on the Jatiya Sangsad premises, they discussed the July National Charter 2025 execution mechanism and decided to recommend the interim government to issue the order.
The referendum ballot would ask if the voters endorse the proposed reforms and the order.
Some of the experts, though, recommended that the order would only carry the 84 reform points 鈥榳ithout dissents鈥� as they were outlined in the July Charter.
No decision was reached on the issue till Thursday, some of the attendees in the meeting said.
However, the meeting was postponed till Saturday afternoon as the attendees did not find answers to several questions.
The questions included how the next parliament, while also playing the role as a Constitution Reform Council, could incorporate the charter into the constitution.
According to the preliminary plan, the July Charter implementation order would be issued to launch the charter鈥檚 implementation process.
A separate ordinance under this order would then be issued to authorise a 鈥榮pecial referendum鈥� to seek the people鈥檚 mandate on the order.
A commission official said that the experts raised questions, including what the future of the charter would be if one party gets a simple majority, or if no party or alliance gets a two-third majority in the next parliament.
The official said that with a 鈥榗onstituting power鈥�, the reform council would require more than a definite time period for incorporating the charter into the constitution.聽
After the meeting, which started at 2:00pm and continued till 9:00pm, the commission hoped that it could submit recommendations on the July Charter execution to the interim government very soon.
Retired Appellate Division Justice MA Matin, Dhaka University鈥檚 law faculty dean Professor Mohammad Ekramul Haque, Supreme Court senior lawyers Sharif Bhuiyan, Imran Siddiq and Tanim Hossain Shawan attended the meeting in person, while retired Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury joined virtually.
Besides consensus commission vice-chair Professor Ali Riaz, other commission members present included Badiul Alam Majumdar, Justice Md Emdadul Haque, Iftekharuzzaman, and Mohammad Aiyub Mia. Monir Haidar, special assistant to the chief adviser on reforms, was also in attendance.
