The National Consensus Commission (NCC) has prepared the draft ‘July National Charter 2025’, which emphasises that the political parties must implement the governance system reforms within two years of formation of the next elected parliament.
The NCC released the draft on Monday. It has already been sent to political parties.
If any major objection doesn’t arise, the final version will be prepared based on feedback from the political parties. A specific day would be allocated in the ongoing reform talks to officially sign the charter by the parties, making a commitment for its implementation.
The draft includes the context of the charter, formation of the reform commissions, formation and responsibilities of the NCC as well as a proposed declaration of commitment from the political parties.
As per the declaration of commitments, the historic significance of the 2024 mass uprising, which ensured the downfall of the Sheikh Hasina-led autocratic Awami League regime, must be given due recognition in the Constitution.
According to the draft charter, the reform issues that have been agreed upon regarding the constitution, judiciary, electoral system, public administration, police system and anti-corruption system must be completed within two years of the next general elections.
The necessary amendments to the Constitution, additions, revisions, writing and rewriting of the constitution and the necessary amendments, changes, revisions, writing, rewriting of the related laws or the enactment of new laws, the formulation of necessary rules or the modification or amendment of existing rules and regulations must be done within this period.
“After the adoption of this charter, we promise to ensure the implementation of all the proposals/recommendations contained in it within the next two (2) years,” says the draft July Charter.
In the preamble to the proposed charter, it was said that the aspiration of the countrymen to form a democratic state structure, which was created in the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971 with the principles of equality, human dignity and social justice, has not been achieved even after 53 years. The democratic institutions have not been established on a sustainable basis in the past five decades.
The preamble to the draft July Charter heavily criticises that past Awami League regime. “For a decade and a half, the autocratic Awami League government, with the aim of amassing power against the public interest, distorted the constitution by amending it, enacted various regressive laws, destroyed the electoral system, partisanised the judiciary and public administration, and looted state resources through corruption.”
Since the NCC wants to conclude the ongoing reform talks by Thursday, it has already reached consensus on key issues with the political parties till the 20th day of the second phase of dialogue held on Monday at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.
However, disagreement remains on some issues, including the reintroduction of the caretaker government system. The NCC wants to finalise the unresolved issues within the deadline. It also wants to finalise the ‘July Charter’ in time.
NCC Vice-Chairman Professor Dr Ali Riaz said that the next two days will be crucial for finalising the draft of the national charter.
Speaking at Monday’s session of the talks, he said that if the participating political parties continue to cooperate, it will be possible to formulate a historic document within this time frame. “We want this July Charter to be a roadmap for the country’s future,” he said.
Some 30 political parties, including BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party (NCP), Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), AB Party, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Gono Odhikar Parishad, Gono Forum, Khelafat Majlis, Ganosanghati Andolon and CPB, joined the talks.
The BNP staged a walkout from the dialogue on Monday as the party said that it would not participate in discussions regarding NCC’s proposals on appointment to four key constitutional bodies – Public Service Commission (PSC), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Comptroller and Auditor General’s office, and Office of the Ombudsman. However, the BNP rejoined the talks after some minutes.
Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed, who is leading the party delegation in the reform talks, said that curtailing the power of the executive branch in appointments to constitutional and statutory bodies could prove problematic in the long term. His party is participating in the ongoing consensus talks to make sure that autocracy never returns to Bangladesh but there should not be any effort to curtail the executive branch’s power, he added.
