The Awami League general secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, has said they are not fully satisfied with the 15th amendment as the ruling party wants 'absolute return' to the 1972 constitution.
'We [Awami League] are not 100 per cent happy with the latest constitution amendment. Our aim is to fully revert to the 1972 charter,' Ashraful told a media briefing at the party chief's Dhanmondi office on Saturday.
The news conference was organised to brief the journalists about the ruling party's position on the 15th amendment to the constitution.
Parliament passed the 15th constitution amendment bill into law on Thursday, restoring four fundamental principles — nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism — of the 1972 constitution, and retaining Islam as the state region and 'Bismillah' in its preamble.
The two issues—Islam as the state region and 'Bismillah' in the preamble — do not go with the country's first constitution introduced in 1972.
Several allies of the Awami League and left-leaning political parties are opposing Islam as the state religion.
Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said the constitution amendment was the demand of time, and 'there's reflection of everyone's opinion on it'.
'However, I won't claim that it [amendment constitution] has cent per cent reflection of everyone's opinion. Practically, it is not always possible to manifest the full reflection of everyone's suggestion,' he said.
'We had to make a lot of compromise here [in amending the constitution],' he added.
Ashraf also said they now wanted to motivate the party leaders and activists as well as
people for absolute restoration of the 1972 constitution.
Showing a cold shoulder to BNP's stiff protests against the annulment of the caretaker government system, the AL
policymaker said, 'The constitution can be amended again, if necessary.'
Referring to BNP's threat to go for an oust-government campaign, Ashraf, however, said, 'Gone are the days that you [BNP] will kill Hasina like Bangabandhu and grab the state power… 1975 and 2011 are not the same [time].'
'The Awami League leaders and activists are now very much alert,' he said.
The main opposition BNP outright rejected the 15th amendment, saying, 'The constitution has now turned to be Awami League's party manifesto'. The amendment, BNP chief Khaleda Zia said, would certainly push the country into confrontation.
About Khaleda's comments, the AL general secretary said, 'The BNP leader [Khaleda] wants to go to power in an unconstitutional way. She needs dead bodies, she needs blood.'
'Even the BNP leaders are now worried about whose bodies or whose blood she [Khaleda] wants. So the BNP leaders now keep three or four people along with them,' the AL leader said.
Source : New Age
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