The Communist Party of Bangladesh on Tuesday expressed its suspicion about reaching a national charter, criticising the interim government for risking the consensus building by overstepping its state reform mandate.
Talking to journalists after their meeting with the National Consensus Commission at the LD Hall of Jatiya Sangsad in Dhaka, CPB leaders said that abolishing the National Board of Revenue, allowing a so-called 鈥榟umane corridor鈥� along the vulnerable Bangladesh-Myanmar border, and handing over the Chittagong Port to foreign operators were never be the interim government鈥檚 state reform agenda.
鈥楾he interim government is focusing on issues outside the reform discussions, thereby putting the consensus building among the political parties into a crisis,鈥� said Ruhin Hossain Prince, general secretary of the CPB.
Prince led a seven-member delegation to the meeting, which had been withheld on May 13. NCC vice-chair Ali Riaz presided over the meeting.
In the meeting, the CPB delegation expressed doubt about the adoption of a consensus-based national charter, saying that the NCC did 鈥榰nnecessarily鈥� bring some issues on the table, on which different political parties would never have a consensus.
The CPB general secretary said that political parties were highly unlikely to reach a consensus over the changes in the constitution鈥檚 fundamental principles, a bicameral parliament, a national constitutional council, provincial governments and several other issues.
鈥業nstead of discussing the potentially controversial issues, there should have been discussions and consensus building efforts on the code of conduct of political parties,鈥� he said.
Further explaining the party鈥檚 point of view, he said that if there was a consensus-based 鈥榗ode of conduct鈥�, citizens could hold the lawmakers of the next parliament accountable.
Replying to a question about the politicians鈥� failure to abide by the 1990 three-alliance joint declaration after the fall of the dictator HM Ershad regime, Prince said that his party still supported all key reforms to be approved by the next parliament.
He said that the CPB delegation agreed to the proposed two-term tenure of the president and the prime minister, recognition of national minorities and their languages, expansion of the fundamental rights and most of the recommendations by the reform commissions on public administration, judiciary and Anti-Corruption Commission.
鈥楤ut all the recommendations, even enjoying a political consensus, must be implemented by the next parliament. Otherwise, these will not sustain,鈥� he said.
As part of the state reform efforts after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime after 15 years, the interim government, on October 3 last year, formed six reform commissions covering the constitution, electoral process, police, judiciary, public administration and Anti-Corruption Commission.
To facilitate the consensus-building process following discussions on the reform commission reports, the interim government formed the National Consensus Commission on March 15.
Beginning the discussion on March 20, the NCC held meeting with 33 political parties till Monday.
According to the NCC, the Monday meeting was the last one in its first-round of discussion. The schedules for the second-round meeting will be announced by further notice.
