Decision on Jamaat after verdict: EC

To ban Jamaat-e-Islami for its involvement in 1971 war crimes or not is a decision the Election Commission will take only after the verdict of the special tribunal is closely examined.

“Prior to going through the tribunal’s verdict carefully, it was not possible to speculate on what the Election Commission will do,” said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad.

He told the media “nothing was possible before we have gone through the copy of the tribunal’s verdict.”

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad. File Photo.

The first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh had observed that the Jamaat-e-Islami was a “criminal political organisation” in its verdict on the party’s former chief Ghulam Azam last Monday.

The verdict also observed that none opposed to Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 should be allowed to hold a ‘position of importance anywhere in the country’.

The government was asked to ensure that by the tribunal.

In other verdicts on the 1971 war crimes, the two special tribunals have alluded to Jamaat-e-Islami’s complicity with the wartime atrocities on several occasions.

In the death sentence verdict against former Jamaat activist Abul Kalam Azad alias Bacchchu Razakar, the war crimes tribunal had observed “Jamaat’s role in creating armed vigilante groups to protect the unity of Pakistan” and “in atrocities perpetrated against innocent Bengalees”.

“We are all bound to go by the court’s orders. If the Election Commission gets any orders from the court, we will abide by it,” CEC Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed had said after the Bacchchu Razakar verdict.

The CEC had also assured of necessary changes in the Representation of People’s Order (RPO) to debar those convicted by the International Crimes Tribunals from contesting elections.

“Those convicted by the ICT will be debarred from contesting elections. We are reworking the technical aspects of the RPO act to ensure that,” Ahmed said at the end of meeting on amendments to the RPO.