Staff Reporter :
BNP Standing Committee Member Salah Uddin Ahmed said the specific forum for implementing the July Charter is a ‘elected national parliament.’
The BNP permanent committee member made this remark at a discussion on Sunday afternoon.
He said, “July is a historic, complete document of political consolidation in the national life. We are all committed to implementing it, and the specific forum for that implementation is an elected national parliament. No party disagrees on this point.”
“In that national parliament, to ensure that the July Charter is binding on parliament there must be a legal basis – a law.
Now, once the proposal or recommendation is submitted from the national parliament to the government, only after that recommendation is made will we know by what process they intend to draft that law.”
Salah Uddin said, “I want to inform everyone, to call on all political parties and to appeal to the country that we must under no circumstances go outside lawful procedures, we must not go outside constitutional processes. We should steer this nation through a proper, orderly system of governance.”
“Because many, carried away by emotion, say that since the people’s intention expressed in the July mass uprising may deteriorate, many revolutionary orders might be issued… that is an emotional statement.
We have taken the constitution as our refuge in order to implement the people’s will, and this government was established constitutionally and continues to run the state lawfully and constitutionally.”
The discussion took place at the Engineers Institute auditorium in Ramna, Dhaka, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Gonodhikar Parishad.
The event was chaired by Gonodhikar Parishad President Nurul Haq Noor and moderated by Faruk Khan. Leaders from various political parties, including the BNP, spoke at the meeting.
“Whatever is legitimate must happen in parliament”
Salah Uddin said, “Some people raise debates about whether genuine constitutionality has been preserved.
We have always responded. As much as we have tried to legitimize things through Article 106 of the Constitution. Still, in some matters it seems to us that certain constitutional provisions have perhaps been aggregated.
But the legitimacy of that will certainly be given by a subsequent parliament when the government’s actions are legitimized; it will be included in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution and be ratified; other laws that have been passed will require ratification… Through this process, if any deviations occurred, those deviations will also be legitimized… That is the rule, that is our tradition and constitutional heritage.”
“So, with that profile, we should not again move toward any unconstitutional method that would later raise questions – that the person who should have issued an order did not; that an order was not issued as it should have been.
If the basis of an order is not lawful, then how will that order be enacted into law and how will it be brought back to parliament for implementation… these are the things we should discuss.”
Explaining further, he said, “The July National Charter that was drafted, the way everyone signed it and along with a note of dissent – when the July National Charter is implemented on the basis of the sovereign will of the people and that creates an obligation on a parliament, then from that point no member of parliament and that national parliament can move away, and that is the genuine will of the people and the constitutional power.”
“The people’s constitutional power will be expressed through a referendum, and therefore that parliament cannot go beyond it… This is another name for ‘constituted power’ or the philosophical power of the people as the bearers of sovereignty, under Article 7.”
“Regarding the NCP”
Salah Uddin Ahmed said, “My brothers who formed the new political party-the NCP-have many kinds of statements which we ourselves also accept… but those need to be given a real form, and we must speak based on practical realities.
We should not present any proposals that could be questioned in the future. If someone takes them to the judiciary and through that process calls our whole process illegal, we must avoid that.”
“I am not saying this just for today, or for the next five years; I am saying this so that ten or fifteen years from now no one can take this issue to court. We must now craft a foundation so that nobody can challenge it later. We should carefully advance the successes we have achieved so they can lead to further successes.”
“Keep the anti-fascist unity intact”
Salah Uddin Ahmed said, “We want that the way we were united in the anti-fascist democratic movement – the same unity that caused the rise of BJP elsewhere, and caused the fall and flight of fascism – we should preserve that unity.”
“This anti-fascist national unity will be our only strength to move forward. If that unity is broken for any reason, it will bring fascism back in another form.
I urge that we do not go that way; we must remain united in the national interest on one question – Bangladesh’s independence, sovereignty, and democracy – we must stand together. And secondly, we must not allow fascism to return to Bangladesh in any form… on that point we must remain united.”
