At least 19 proposals have been made by Jatiya Party to reform the constitution. The party's chairman GM Quader said, “Our proposals are aimed at recommending measures to free Parliament from the complete control of the Prime Minister.” He said, 'We have tried to arrange power sharing between the President and the Prime Minister. This we have done to maintain the balance of state authority. Our aim is to ensure that one person, the Prime Minister, does not become authoritarian or dictatorial with sole authority over all state powers.'
GM Quader said these things while presenting the party's proposal to reform the constitution at a press conference held at Banani in the capital on Thursday (November 28).
At the beginning of the speech, he said, 'The constitution and the rules of procedure were drafted in that way from the beginning of the introduction of the parliamentary democracy system in Bangladesh. But, even then the prime minister or the chief executive of the government was empowered to have complete control over the parliament from the beginning. This was done by including an Article in the Constitution (Article-70).'
'This provision does not entitle party members of parliament (known as Members of Parliament or MPs), elected by the people, to vote outside party decisions during parliamentary voting or what is called party whipping in parliamentary parlance. This ensures the Prime Minister the support of party MPs in the decision-making process. The government is formed by the majority vote of the parliamentarians in the parliament.
He mentioned that all the decisions of the parliament are usually taken based on the majority vote. Only amendments to the Constitution require a two-thirds majority. Thus, Article 70 of the Constitution empowers the Prime Minister to unilaterally take any decision and pass it in Parliament.
GM Quader said, 'If the head of the government party and the Prime Minister were two different people – then there could have been some balance in favor of the Prime Minister in full control of the Parliament. Traditionally, this has never happened. Until now, whenever the opportunity arose, the party chief took over the post of Prime Minister.'
Japa Chairman said, 'Caretaker government system must be restored. The Chief Counsel should preferably not be from the Judiciary. Because, it may question the independence and impartiality of judiciary. Moreover, through this, an undesirable example of a mix of the judiciary with politics and the executive may be created.'
He pointed out that the proposed president, elected with a three-fourths majority in the parliament, can be considered a unanimous candidate. In that case the President can lead the caretaker government. Article 58 of the Constitution after the repeal of the 15th Amendment. (b), may be modified accordingly.
Japa's top leader said, 'Article 7(a) will be removed if the fifteenth amendment is repealed. 7(a) is not considered reasonable in the present circumstances. Article 7(b) of the Constitution will also be repealed.'
The press conference was attended by Jatiya Party Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Co-Chairman ABM Ruhul Amin Howladar, Presidium member Advocate Md. Rezaul Islam Bhuiyan, Nazma Akhtar, Alamgir Sikder Lawton, Liaquat Hossain Khoka, Zahirul Islam Zahir, Sherifa Quader, Monirul Islam Milan, Masrur Mawla, Jasim Uddin Bhuiyan, Arifur Rahman Khan, Advisor to Chairman Nurul Islam Talukder, Khalilur Rahman Khalil, Zahid Hasan, Major Mahfuzur Rahman (Retd.), Vice Chairman Golam Mohammad Raju, Salah Uddin Ahmed Mukti, Ahad U Chowdhury Shaheen, Helal Uddin, Joint Secretary General Samchul Haque, Editorial Board Member Humayun Kabir, Oliullah Masud Chowdhury, Kazi Abul Khair, ABM Liaquat Hossain Chakladar, Abdul Hannan, MA Razzaq Khan, Engineer Elahan Uddin, Joint Editor Mamunur Rahim Suman, Principal Golam Mostafa, Mahmud Alam, Samaresh Mandal Manik.
