NCP urges immediate formation of constitution reform council in line with referendum verdict

The National Citizen Party (NCP) has called for the formation of a constitution reform council in line with the verdict of the referendum. The party made the call in a statement on Saturday afternoon (7 November).

The statement said today is the historic 7 November. On this day in 1975, the historic Sipahi-Janata uprising took place. On this historic day, the party remembered Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman, the proclaimer of independence. The NCP paid deep respect to his memory.

The statement further said a regional power has repeatedly tried to appropriate Bangladesh's independent political development and the sacrifices of its people. But the fearless people of Bangladesh have repeatedly shattered the chains of dominance and slavery by giving birth to historic events, sometimes the Sipahi-Janata uprising and sometimes the July revolution.

Describing Ziaur Rahman as a rare personality among military rulers, the statement said he rose from a military background, abolished one-party BAKSAL politics and restored multiparty politics in the country.

The NCP said Ziaur Rahman had wanted to introduce democracy through the fifth amendment to the constitution within the BAKSAL structure. But that anti-people fascist structure annulled the fifth amendment through the court at the first opportunity.

The statement alleged that, sadly, the BNP, the party founded by Ziaur Rahman, has learned no historical, political or constitutional lesson from history. The party wants to compress a fundamental change to the constitution like the July Charter into the eighteenth amendment once again, which could face a challenge from the court or a future parliament at any time.

Appealing to the BNP, the statement said: learn from history and step back from the attempt to fit a fundamental structural reform of the constitution into the narrow box of a constitutional amendment.

The statement said the people's verdict in the referendum must be respected and steps taken immediately to implement it. Form a constitution reform council in line with the verdict.

It also warned that if those who came to power through an election made possible by the July revolution deny the people's verdict, they will one day have to stand in the dock of history.

The NCP's statement came at a time when discussions are under way in the political arena over implementing the July National Charter and the referendum verdict. Different parties are taking initiatives from their own positions on the question of implementing constitutional reform.