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Political parties have been asked for opinions on recommendations received from the reform commissions
Published : 10 Mar 2025, 04:10 PM
The 'July Charter' will be formulated swiftly based on consensus and the recommendations on the Reform Commission report, Consensus Commission Vice President Ali Riaz has said.
Speaking at the LD Hall in Parliament on Monday, Riaz said 34 political parties and alliances had been asked to send opinions on recommendations from the reform commissions.
“The next step of the process depends on the political parties. We want to put this up for discussion quickly and reach an agreement within a short period of time to come up with a national charter,” he said.
Riaz said: “We will begin discussing with the representatives of the parties directly once we receive their opinions. That’s why we’ve yet to set a specific date.”
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in the face of the student-led mass uprising on Aug 5 last year, an interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus took over and formed 11 reform commissions to drive state reform initiatives.
The government has already released the complete reports of the six commissions, including the constitutional, electoral, Anti-Corruption Commission, police reform, judiciary and public administration reform panels.
Chief Advisor Yunus himself leads the commission, which aims to hold discussions with parties and political forces to form a national consensus and review the recommendations made by the reform panels ahead of the next parliamentary elections.
Riaz, the head of the Constitution Reform Commission, serves as the vice chairman of the Consensus Commission. The heads of the other commissions are also members of this body, which began its six-month tenure on Feb 15.
As many as 104 representatives from 34 parties attended the inaugural meeting chaired by Yunus, according to Riaz.
“All parties were sent soft copies of the reports earlier,” Riaz said.
Later, the members of the Consensus Commission held three more meetings to identify key recommendations, he added.
“The recommendations were organised in a chart. The Police Reform Commission’s recommendations were not added to these charts."
“The Police Reform Commission believes their recommendations can be implemented through administrative steps.”
Riaz said as many as 166 recommendations were identified -- 70 of them relating to the Constitution, 27 to elections, 23 to the judiciary, 26 to public administration and 20 to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
These were sent to the 34 political parties and alliances on Mar 6, seeking two types of feedback for each recommendation, he said.
“The first is whether they agree on the relevant recommendation with three options, which are -- ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘partially agree’.
“The second is about the timeline for the reform and the method of implementation of each recommendation. There are six options for this, which are -- 'Through an ordinance before the election', 'Through a referendum before the election', 'Through a referendum during the election', 'Through the National Assembly', 'Through constitutional reform after the election' and 'Through the parliament elected as the National Assembly and the legislature'.
Riaz continued: “The parties have space to provide comments next to each recommendation as well. We are expecting the opinions of the political parties and alliances by Mar 13.”
Citizens will be asked for their views on the recommendations online, he added.
