Bangladesh commission suggests dropping 'secularism', 'socialism' from Constitution; proposes bicameral House

Dhaka: The Constitution Reform Commission on Wednesday submitted its report to interim government chief Muhammad Yunus, proposing the replacement of the state principles of secularism, socialism and nationalism.

The commission set up by the Yunus administration, after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as prime minister following a mass agitation led by students, also proposed a bicameral parliament for the country and a two-term limit on a premier’s tenure.

The three principles are among the four enshrined as “fundamental principles of state policy” in the country’s constitution. Under the new proposals, only one -- “democracy”, remains unchanged.

“We are proposing five state principles -- equality, human dignity, social justice, pluralism, and democracy -- for reflection of the great ideals of the 1971 Liberation War and the people’s aspiration during the 2024 mass upsurge,” commission chairman Ali Riaz said in a video statement.

The report kept “democracy” alone in the constitution's preamble alongside the four new principles as it presented the report to Yunus.

The chief advisor's press wing in a statement quoted Riaz as saying the commission recommended the formation of a bicameral parliament with a lower house named the National Assembly and an upper house named the Senate with 105 and 400 seats respectively.

The report suggested both the proposed houses will have a term of four years instead of the existing five-year term of the parliament.

The commission suggested the lower house be based on majority representation and the upper one on proportional representation.

The commission believes that one of the main reasons the “autocratic authoritarianism Bangladesh” faced over the past 16 years was because of the absence of an institutional power balance and concentration of power in the prime minister’s office.

It recommended a two-term limit on the premier’s tenure.

The report said, therefore, it proposed the creation of a constitutional body named the National Constitutional Council to establish a system of checks and balances between the three branches of the state and the two executive positions — the prime minister and the president.

This council would include the president, the chief justice, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition (both elected through the parliament), speakers of both houses, deputy speakers from the opposition, and a representative of other parties.

The report said the commission believes this institution would ensure transparency and accountability in the appointment process as a constitutional body.

Riaz said the commission proposed the reintroduction of the referendum system for amending the constitution. Under the existing provisions, the parliament on its own can amend the constitution with a two-thirds majority.

Bangladesh's constitution has been amended so far 17 times since it was framed in 1971, a year after the emergence of independent Bangladesh following a nine-month Liberation War against Pakistan.

The leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement that led the July-August uprising toppling then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s nearly 16 years Awami League regime called the constitution a “Mujibist” charter, a reference to Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father.

They demanded scrapping of the "Mujibist 1972 Constitution”. However, this has been opposed as well by Awami League’s arch-rival former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The BNP on Tuesday formally demanded general elections in July-August this year, opposing Yunus’s expressed desire to stage the polls by the year-end or mid-2026 after accomplishing some basic reforms.

However, after an overnight meeting of the highest policy-making steering committee with the party’s acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman in London through a virtual platform BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said reform was a continuous process.

He said the BNP was committed to reforms as it has always been at the "forefront of reforms as in 2016 we presented 'Vision 2030', and in 2023 we introduced a 31-point plan”.

Most of her senior leaders and cabinet colleagues are on the run at home and abroad while some are in jail to face graft and criminal charges as the ruthless crackdown on the campaigners claimed several hundred lives.