July Charter: Risks becoming ‘public fraud’ without legitimacy: NCP
Staff Reporter :
The National Citizen Party (NCP) has warned that the much-anticipated July National Charter — hailed as a historic step toward rebuilding Bangladesh’s democratic order — will amount to “public fraud and a farce with the nation” if it is not given legal status.
Speaking at an emergency press conference at the party’s Dhaka office yesterday, NCP Convener Nahid Islam said the charter’s ambition to reshape the Constitution requires more than political consensus — it
demands constitutional legitimacy.
“For a document that seeks to amend or reinterpret the Constitution, legality is indispensable,” Nahid said. “The July Charter must have a legal foundation to embody the sovereign will of the people. Without that, it will amount to public deception.”
He questioned the authority needed to give the charter legal effect, asserting that President Mohammed Shahabuddin lacks the moral standing to endorse it. “The President is not a figure of the July Uprising,” Nahid said. “Any constitutional order bearing his signature would not gain moral acceptance among the people.”
According to him, only Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus — who assumed leadership at the call of the students and general public during the July Uprising — has the moral authority to legitimise the charter.
NCP Member Secretary Akhter Hossen, who read from a written statement at the event, explained that the NCP had boycotted the July Charter’s signing ceremony for three main reasons: the failure to secure a legal framework for the document, the “disrespectful treatment” of martyrs’ families and injured July Warriors, and the absence of clarity in the decisions made by the National Consensus Commission.
“We do not want to see the aspirations of the people betrayed again, as they were after the 1990 mass uprising,” Nahid declared. He added that the NCP’s struggle was not directed against Sheikh Hasina or the Awami League but was “a democratic movement against the fascist state structure.”
Akhter warned that without a legal framework, the July Charter would become nothing more than “a piece of political compromise paper,” undermining the very spirit of the July Uprising.
Responding to reporters’ questions, Nahid also accused the Election Commission of showing bias in its handling of the NCP’s electoral symbol, the Shapla (Waterlily). He cautioned that his party would be “forced to take to the streets” if it was obstructed from participating in the upcoming national election.
At the end of the press conference, Nahid Islam sharply criticised BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed for his recent remarks describing the July Warriors as “accomplices of the fascist Awami League.”
“Let me say one more thing,” Nahid told reporters. “We have just seen BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed label the July Warriors — those who were injured in yesterday’s events — as followers of the fascist Awami League. We strongly condemn and protest such insulting remarks. He must apologise to the July Warriors and to the nation.”