Washington: Sajeeb Wazed, the son of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has questioned the legality of an ordinance used by the interim government to ban the Awami League, saying the country’s new BNP-led administration faces a 30-day constitutional deadline to decide its fate.
In a statement, Wazed said the interim government amended the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, through a new ordinance to grant itself the authority to prohibit a political party’s activities. It subsequently issued S.R.O. 137Ain/2025 based on that power.
“To impose a ban on Awami League, the Interim Govt had to pass a new Ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism 2009 to arrogate the power of banning activities of a political party and then published S.R.O. 137Ain/2025 based on the new power,” he said.
Wazed cited Article 93(2) of Bangladesh’s Constitution, which requires that any such ordinance be placed before Parliament at its first sitting after a new government takes office.
“The Ordinance shall cease to have effect at the expiration of thirty days after it is so laid unless a validating Act is passed within that period,” he said.
He said that within this 30-day constitutional window, the BNP-led government may either allow the ordinance to lapse or approve it through legislation, thereby incorporating both the amendment and the S.R.O.-based powers into the permanent text of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009.
If Parliament approves the amendment in its existing form, Wazed said, “the Ordinance and all executive measures that depend on it—including the proscription of the Awami League as an ‘entity’ and the derivative Election Commission deregistration, would be unconstitutional and shall be subject to judicial review.”
He argued that parliamentary endorsement would signal support for what he described as an extraordinary use of anti-terrorism legislation.
“Should the BNP government secure parliamentary approval of the amendment in its existing form, this would signify an intention to endorse and continue the interim administration’s abuse of anti-terrorism law as a basis for banning political parties and undermining democracy, thereby normalising an extraordinary proscription regime and entrenching the exclusion of the Bangladesh Awami League from the political and electoral process,” he said.
Conversely, he said a decision not to validate the ordinance would mark a departure from the interim administration’s approach.
“Conversely, if the BNP Govt. does not take steps to endorse the Ordinance, this would indicate a positive stance on their part to distance them from the hostile interim government’s approach, to restore a narrower, rights-compatible anti-terrorism framework. To reopen space for pluralistic party competition and inclusive democracy, BNP must not allow endorsement of the Ordinance by the new Parliament and let it lapse after 30 days of the first sitting of Parliament.”
Bangladesh’s Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, was enacted to address militancy and extremist violence. The Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been the country’s two dominant political forces since the restoration of parliamentary democracy in the early 1990s, making any move to ban a major party legally and politically consequential.
(IANS)
