The Awami League says Abdul Latif Siddique’s seat will fall vacant if he is expelled from the party.
Published : 13 Oct 2014, 09:54 AM
The Constitution sheds no light on what happens to one’s MP status once he or she is ousted from the party they have represented in Parliament.
Article 70 (1) says: “A person elected as a Member of Parliament in an election in which he or she was nominated as a candidate by a political party shall vacate his seat if he resigns from that party or votes in Parliament against the party."
The Awami League Central Working Committee on Sunday expelled Siddique from its policy-making Presidium and suspended his party membership over his anti-Hajj rant during the recent visit to the USA.
Siddique, Post, Telecommunications and ICT Minister at the time, on Sept 28 told a New York programme that he was strongly against Hajj, Tabligh and Jamaat-e-Islami.
He has now been dropped from the Cabinet.
Asked what will happen to Siddique's MP status after he is removed from the Awami League, party General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said: “His Parliament seat will fall vacant if his primary membership (in the party) is cancelled.”
However, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told bdnews24.com: “The Constitution provides for circumstances in which a MP can lose his position. But it has not dealt with the issue of his expulsion from the party."
Parliament Secretariat officials said BNP MP Abu Hena was expelled from the party during the last BNP-led 4-Party alliance government but the then Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar ruled that he would remain MP.
Jaitya Party MP HM Golam Reza in the ninth Parliament could also continue as MP though he was expelled from the party.