DHAKA: The special committee on constitutional amendment Thursday got down to the crucial task of rewriting the country’s Constitution with the apex court’s verdict recommending basic changes on the table.
Comprising mostly senior lawmakers—all from the ruling grand alliance, as the main opposition BNP stayed away—the panel sat in its maiden meeting at 11am in the cabinet room of the House of Parliament and made an initial appraisal of the Supreme Court judgment unveiled on Tuesday evening.
The meeting of the 15-member committee of parliamentarians, with its chairperson and Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the chair, was adjourned till August 8, assigning the competent authorities to prepare a review report on the court judgment in the intervening time.
However, two prominent members—Abdur Razzak MP and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim MP, both former ministers--did not join the first meeting on account of their illness.
Wrapping up the proceedings of the meeting on the first day, committee co-chairman Suranjit Sengupta briefed journalists. They welcomed the Supreme Court’s full verdict proscribing the 5th amendment to the Constitution and prescribing restoration of the fundamentals of the country’s original post-independence Constitution with some modifications.
“This is a historic judgment. It will help institutionalise the country’s democracy,” said Sengupta about the opinion of the meeting.
The meeting asked the Law Commission, ministries concerned and the Parliament secretariat to make a report after evaluating the full text of the verdict and place it before the committee at the next meet on August 8.
“We started our work from the meeting today. We will consult constitution experts and take their advice,” he said.
Suranjit Sengupta, also a lawyer and veteran lawmaker bearing experiences since the country’s first parliament, has been made spokesman for the committee.
The committee was formed on July 21, consisting of only the ruling Awami League-led grand-alliance lawmakers, as BNP declined to nominate their representative following an invitation from the ruling party.
But the government said BNP has still scope for having its nominee inducted in the committee. The Prime Minister will include their nominee’s name if they proposed.
Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed, a technocrat in Sheikh Hasina’s Cabinet, was invited to be present at the committee meeting.
The other members of the committee are Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Syed Ashraful Islam, Abdul Matin Khasru, Advocate Rahmat Ali, Dr. Hasan Mahamood, Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury and Advocate Fazle Rabbi from Awami League, Anisul Islam Mahamood from Jatiya Party (Ershad), Rashed Khan Menon from Workers Party and Hasanul Haque Inu from JSD.
The committee is set to recommend going back to the Bengalis’ core constitutional principles, stopping usurpation of state power, reestablishing people’s sovereign power and preserving spirit of the liberation war through executing the highest court’s verdict.
The amendments will be approved after the placing of the committee’s recommendations in Parliament, giving the severely scratched basic law book of the nation a new look through resurrection and updating.
BDST: 1345 HRS, JULY 29, 2010.
