Jamaat notifies EC, Speaker to declare Satkhira-4 seat vacant
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam has formally written to the Election Commission (EC) and the Speaker of Parliament, seeking steps to declare vacant the parliamentary seat of Satkhira-4 lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam, saying his expulsion from the party has made him ineligible to continue as a lawmaker.
The letter, signed by Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar, sent to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Speaker yesterday, a day after the party expelled Nazrul over allegations of moral turpitude.
According to the letter, an internal organisational probe found the allegations against Nazrul — which stemmed from reports in various media outlets — to be substantiated. He was expelled from the party under Article 62 of Jamaat’s constitution.
The party has asked the EC to take note of the expulsion and initiate the legal process required to address his parliamentary membership.
Party sources said Jamaat had initially intended to send the letters immediately after its Central Executive Council meeting the previous night, but held off following further internal discussions. The letters were eventually dispatched around 3:30pm yesterday.
EC says letter alone insufficient for action
Responding to Jamaat’s letter, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud said on Thursday that the Election Commission has no scope to take direct action solely on the basis of a party’s letter regarding an expelled lawmaker’s parliamentary membership.
“I don’t think there is any scope to take direct action on the basis of a letter alone,” he told reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon, Dhaka.
He added that whether an MP automatically loses his parliamentary seat upon expulsion from his political party remains a contentious constitutional question — one that the Commission would need to examine carefully before proceeding.
The matter now leaves Nazrul’s fate as a sitting MP in limbo, pending further clarity on the constitutional and legal questions involved.
The controversy surrounding Nazrul began on 20 July, when CCTV footage showing him in an intimate moment with a woman went viral on social media, sparking widespread criticism.
Responding to the fallout, Nazrul posted on Facebook claiming that one of the women in the footage was his second wife, whom he had married on 17 June this year with the consent of his first wife.
The claim, however, drew further criticism rather than quelling the controversy.
The lawmaker also alleged that while he and his family were staying in Dhaka’s Moghbazar area, his driver and a relative of his purported second wife brought outsiders to hold them hostage and demand money.
He claimed that after the attempt to extort money failed, the group — acting out of prior enmity — illegally obtained the CCTV footage and circulated it online.
Subsequently, videos featuring statements from Nazrul’s first wife, his claimed second wife, and his father-in-law surfaced on social media, in which they described the matter as a family dispute and alleged it was part of a conspiracy against him.
Since then, several more videos related to Nazrul have circulated online, intensifying public criticism and ultimately leading to his expulsion from Jamaat.
