The National Consensus Commission on Saturday deferred the ceremony of signing the July National Charter 2025 from October 15 to October 17, Friday a weekly holiday, to ensure greater participation in the ceremony.
While rescheduling the signing ceremony date, the consensus commission floated a new proposal to repeal the Article 4A of the constitution, sparking a fresh debate in the political arena.
The decision to reschedule the charter signing date was made at a meeting with interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus , also the chair of the consensus commission, in the chair at the state guest house Jamuna in Dhaka on Saturday evening, according to the CA press wing.
NCC vice-chair Professor Ali Riaz, Badiul Alam Majumdar, cultural adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, and the CA鈥檚 special assistant for reforms, Monir Haidar, were present at the meeting.
After the meeting, Ali Riaz told 抖阴精品 that the commission informed the chief adviser about the proposed methods of implementing the July Charter and also the preparations made so far for organising the charter signing ceremony.
鈥楾he commission has some tasks left. We are now finalising the charter execution methods, and we need to inform the political parties about it. We will hold informal meetings with them before October 17,鈥� he said.
Formally beginning its task on February 15, the National Consensus Commission formulated the July Charter on September 10 after holding three rounds of dialogue with political parties till finalising the document formally at the October 8 meeting.
On October 9, the commission sent a letter to 30 political parties, seeking their opinions on the proposal for repealing the Article 4A of the constitution.
Article 4A of the constitution guides preserving and displaying the portrait of the 鈥楩ather of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman鈥� at the offices of the president, the prime minister, the speaker, and the chief justice.
The article also provides the instruction to display the portrait at the head and branch offices of all government and semi-government entities, autonomous bodies, statutory public authorities, government and non-government educational institutions, and the embassies and missions of Bangladesh abroad.
The Awami League regime, which was ousted on August 5 in 2024 amid the July uprising, added the Article 4A to the constitution through its 15th amendment on June 30, 2011.
According to the NCC letter, the commission proposed that the omission of the article would be inscribed in the July Charter.
The commission requested the parties to submit their opinion by 4:00pm on Saturday.
Till the stipulated time, 12 political parties submitted their opinions, either rejecting or supporting the NCC proposal.
The parties that supported the commission鈥檚 proposal are the Amar Bangladesh Party, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Gono Odhikar Parishad, Bangladesh Labour Party, National Citizen Party, Nationalist Democratic Movement, Amjanatar Dal, and Jatiyotabadi Somomona Jote.
Contrarily, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasod strongly opposed the NCC proposal, saying that this would create controversy.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, two major political parties of the country, did not submit their opinion till this report was filed at 8:30pm on Saturday.聽
Jamaat assistant secretary general Hamidur Rahman Azad said that his party supported the omission of the particular article.
鈥楤y adding this article to the constitution, the Awami League had established a 鈥淶amindari system鈥�,鈥� Azad said.
In a letter to the Constitution Reform Commission on November 25 in 2024, the BNP recommended the omission of the Article 4A from the constitution.
AB Party president Mojibur Rahman Monju said that the Article 4A was not fully consistent with the neutrality of the state, institutional professionalism, and the mindset of citizens.
GOP general secretary Rashed Khan opposed the display of Sheikh Mujib as the founding father for his role in establishing the one-party rule in the newly independent country.
The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD recommended reform of the article by including all leaders of the struggles towards the independence Bangladesh as 鈥楩ounders of the Nation鈥�.
Opposing the commission鈥檚 proposal, CPB general secretary Abdullah Al Kafi Ratan said that the introduction of the new proposal, despite packing up the dialogues with the parties, would only create controversies.
Although the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist) did not reply to the new NCC proposal till 8:30pm, its chief coordinator Masud Rana said that the commission should only focus on 84 reform proposals outlined in the July Charter.聽
NCC vice-chair Ali Riaz said that the commission had examined the constitutions of 121 countries and found no similarity with Article 4A in them.
As per the initial recommendations from one of the major political parties, the commission had planned to incorporate the proposal for repealing the article in the charter.
But it was not included in the 84-point July Charter till September 10 as the commission was waiting for opinions from other political parties, he said.