Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed strongly condemned the ‘July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, 2025’, issued during the previous Muhammad Yunus-led interim government term, terming it an “endless document of deception” and a “national fraud”, local media reported.
Addressing the Parliament during a scheduled discussion initiated by the Leader of the Opposition and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman, the Home Minister said that the directive has no legal validity.
“This order has no legal basis and has been illegal from the very beginning,” Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune quoted Ahmed as saying.
He also accused the interim government of not incorporating “notes of dissent” submitted by various political parties prior to the presentation of the document.
“This is a continuous act of deception by the interim government. Excluding dissenting opinions of political parties and presenting it to the nation amounts to a national deception,” Ahmed added.
He also questioned the legality of the presidential order on the July charter issued on the advice of the former interim government, arguing that the authority to issue such directives had ended after April 7, 1973
“After April 7, 1973, the president no longer had the power to issue such an order. So how was this order issued?” he questioned.
Ahmed further said that an order invalid from the outset is, in legal terms, “void ab initio” and therefore cannot be regarded as an ordinance or a law.
Slamming the referendum ballot structure held on February 12 alongside the national elections, the Home Minister said voters were forced to answer four separate questions with a simple “yes” or “no”, insisting that no law should be imposed on the public in such a way.
He added that the former interim government lacked the jurisdiction to make decisions on fundamental national issues.
Ahmed also criticised Bangladesh’s Election Commission over the oath-taking of the Constitutional Reform Council members, stating that there was no legal basis for administering oaths to a “non-existent body”.
Meanwhile, the opposition claimed that the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, 2025, was legal and called for respect of the referendum mandate and the spirit of the July charter.
“The Home Minister called this order an endless deception. He said that the interim government and the president together did this. The order was issued on November 13 last year. And the vote took place on February 12 this year. Because of their (BNP’s) demand, the Parliament and the referendum were held on the same day, and the government formally congratulated them. So, the referendum was also their demand,” Bangladesh’s leading newspaper quoted opposition leader Rahman as saying.
The Jamaat leader further argued that both Ahmed and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had backed a “yes” vote in the referendum.
“We did not change our position,” Rahman said, adding that if the referendum is declared unconstitutional, then many past referendums would come under scrutiny.
The ruling BNP government faces challenges stemming from the constitutional changes brought during the eighteen-month tenure of the interim government, which critics say were legally questionable.
(IANS)
