The parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry on Wednesday placed its report on the constitution amendment bill in the parliament with some changes relating to the role of the parliament and the court during national elections.
Committee member Fazle Rabbi Mia placed the report on behalf of the committee chair, Suranjit Sengupta.
The committee chair in his speech that was included in the report, however, said that he had to compromise on a number of issues such as retention of Bismillah and the state religion in the constitution for the greater welfare of the people.
'I had to compromise on number of issues such as the retention of Bismillah, the state religion and Article 38 for the greater welfare of the people,' he said.
He added that he had not compromised on 24 issues in 1972 and had also given a note of dissent to the committee set up to draft the constitution at the time.
He said that he had seen the politics of cheats, touts and frauds and realised that politics is tough and complicated. 'We do not want to stop the practice of religion by enacting laws. Everybody will perform religion and none will create any barrier. But we oppose using religion in politics,' he said.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, gave her opinion in favour of retention of Bismillah and Islam as the state religion in the constitution along with secularism showing respect to people's religious sentiment, he added.
The committee in the report proposed a change in Article 123 of the Constitution (15th Amendment) Bill 2011 to skip holding a session of the outgoing parliament after a gap of 60 days in the last three
months before general elections.
It said that the parliament would not function in the last three months of the government to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
It also inserted a provision that the court would not entertain any petition regarding elections before hearing the Election Commission during the electoral process.
The committee put into the final form the report at its two meetings on Monday and Tuesday.
The law minister placed the bill in the parliament on June 25 and the bill was sent to the committee to scrutiny giving it two weeks. The committee, however, submitted the report in less than a week.
Sources said that the constitution amendment bill would be passed in the current session of the parliament.
Source : New Age
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