Bangladesh interim govt to unveil ‘July Declaration’ on August 5

Dhaka: The Bangladesh interim government of Muhammad Yunus on Saturday said it would unveil on August 5 the “July Declaration”, coinciding with the first anniversary of the ouster of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime.

“The interim government has finalised the draft of the July Declaration. It will be presented on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, before the nation in the presence of all parties in favour of the mass upheaval,” Yunus’s press wing said in a statement.

The Yunus-led interim government wants to give constitutional recognition to the student-led uprising that took place last year in July-August, which led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. This recognition is known as the July Declaration.

Information adviser Mahfuj Alam, whom Yunus earlier called the “main brain” or the mastermind of what is dubbed the July uprising, meanwhile, said the much-anticipated July Declaration was now a “reality".

"It will be announced on August 5. I thank everyone for keeping this issue alive in the public conscience and helping pave the way for its implementation," said Alam, who was one of the top leaders of Students Against Discrimination (SAD).

The SAD led last year’s violent campaign that eventually toppled the Awami League regime, prompting Hasina to flee the country on August 5, 2024. However, the idea for the July Declaration arose to SAD leaders by the end of December last year.

A leading SAD figure, Hasnat Abdullah, now a top leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP), an offshoot of the SAD that emerged in February this year visibly with Yunus’s blessings, on December 28 last year announced a "declaration of the July Revolution" would be declared in the capital on December 31.

In the subsequent days, SAD leaders put in their efforts to popularise terms such as "Second Republic" through the July Declaration.

They planned a grand rally to announce the “proclamation” to “bury” Bangladesh’s 1972 “Mujibist Constitution”, and declare the Awami League “irrelevant”, sparking political tensions and speculations.

Yunus’s government initially preferred to distance itself from the move, calling it a “private initiative”, but in a surprise announcement later said the government itself would prepare the “proclamation of July uprising” incorporating views of the SAD, all participating students, political parties and stakeholders.

The proponents of the declaration say it is aimed at “unifying the nation around last year’s core values of anti-fascism, democratic resurgence, and state reform” but it sparked debate among political parties – not only over its content alone but also over whether it should be granted constitutional status.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said there was no scope to bring any change in the political process outside parliament, which does not exist in the country.

"There is no scope for constitutional amendments outside it (parliament)," he said at a party rally in the capital.

The senior BNP leader said discussions regarding constitutional amendment were still underway but if any amendments were to be made to the constitution, they must be done through parliament.

Legal experts said the existence of Bangladesh would be at stake if 1972 constitution is scrapped, as demanded by the SAD earlier.