Published : 18 Mar 2025, 07:10 PM
The Consensus Commission will sit with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on the first day of discussions for reforms on Thursday.
The commission will meet with the LDP at 3pm that day, according to a statement.
The discussions with other political parties will be held after that sequentially.
The Consensus Commission led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus began working on Feb 15 aiming 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.
The government already released the complete reports of the six commissions, including the constitutional, electoral, Anti-Corruption Commission, police reform, judiciary and public administration reform panels.
In the first phase, the recommendations were sent to 38 political parties in a spreadsheet.
The Consensus Commission requested the parties to provide their views on these recommendations by March 13.
The parties that submitted feedback so far are the LDP, Khelafat Majlish, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh, Zaker Party, Bhasani Followers Council, Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM), Aam Janatar Dal, or People’s Party, Rastro Songskar Andolan, or State Reform Movement, Bangladesh Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JaSoD), Bangladesh Labour Party, Amar Bangladesh Party (AB Party) and Nagorik Oikya, or Citizens’ Unity.
The BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and 23 other parties requested more time to provide feedback.
Only seven parties had delivered feedback by the deadline.
The Consensus Commission had mentioned that it would accept party opinions on other reform commissions recommendations as well.
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.