SC verdict on constitution welcomed in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh SC's landmark ruling to nullify the 1979 constitutional amendment that had allowed religion-based political parities to flourish in the country has been widely welcomed with the government terming it as a 'victory of constitutionalism'.

The Bangladesh Supreme Court’s landmark ruling to nullify the 1979 constitutional amendment that had allowed religion-based political parities to flourish in the country has been widely welcomed with the government terming it as a “victory of constitutionalism”.

Legal analysts and media said the yesterday’s judgment of the Appellate Division upholding an earlier High Court verdict paved the way for restoring the constitutional spirit of “secularism” and “democracy”.

The ‘Daily Star’ newspaper headline said ‘constitution to get back on (original) 1972 track’ as it lost ‘basic character’ after the Fifth Amendment in 1979. Leading jurist M Zahir said,”it relieved us greatly”.

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The Bangladeshi government welcomed the judgment with law minister Shafique Ahmed calling it a “victory of constitutionalism”.

“It established the truth that the state does not have any role to decide if a citizen should go to heaven or hell,” Ahmed said.

Hasina’s archrival and former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said it awaited the

issuance of the full text of the verdict for comments,while it’s crucial ally in the past four-party coalition government Jamaat-e-Islami called the judgment “part of a plot to ban Islamic politics”.

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