FROM NAYA PALTAN: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) urged President Abdul Hamid not to sign the Constitution (16th amendment) Bill and send it to the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) for reconsideration.

During the BNP-led 20-party alliance called countrywide hartal, BNP joint-secretary general Mohammad Shahjahan made the urge at a press conference at BNP headquarters in city’s Naya Paltan area at 11:00am on Monday.

Mohammad Shahjahan said that the President is a learned lawyer. He knows that the bill, which has given the power of impeachment of the judges to the JS, will be a law if he signs it.

We urge him not to sign the bill. We also urge him to send the bill to the JS for reconsideration, he added.

He further said that if the President signs the bill then we will think that the incumbent government is stepping towards the revival of one-party BAKSAL system that was imposed by banning all political parties with a bill in the JS in 1975.

BDST: 1246 HRS, SEP 22, 2014