BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed on Sunday questioned why reform dialogue is needed if all parties are asked to fully agree with every proposal put forward by the National Consensus Commission.
“If we are asked to agree 100 percent with all proposals of the Commission, then why were we invited for discussion?” he told reporters after the seventh day of the second phase of talks between the commission and political parties at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.
The BNP leader said the July Charter or National Charter is supposed to be signed by bringing together all the issues on which the parties agree. “Now if we are forced here to agree on all the issues - that is not right,” he said replying to a question.
Noting that they never express disappointment, he said, “We express optimism. We are making this proposal -- all the issues that the parties and everyone will agree on will be signed as the July Charter.”
Focusing on BNP’s support to many reform proposals, Salahuddin said they agreed on the change in the article 70 of the constitution, the chairmanship of key parliamentary standing committees, conditionally agreed on the proposal of limiting a person’s tenure as prime minister to a maximum of 10 years during their lifetime (but in that case, the proposal to form any authority like National Constitutional Council or Appointment Committee for the constitutional and statutory institutions must be avoided).
He said BNP also agreed on the issue of electing the president through a secret ballot, allowing MPs to vote independently.
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Salahuddin raised BNP’s previous position, objecting to the proposal to form an appointment committee for the constitutional and statutory bodies and introduction of Proportional Representation (PR) system (based on votes) in the proposed 100-seated Upper House.
He said BNP rather supports that the political parties should have representation in the Upper House based on the number of their respective MPs in the lower house in case of the bicameral parliament.
But most of the political parties including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party-NCP, want the formation of the appointment committee and the PR system in the Upper House.