Bangladesh plans to amend constitution.

Byline: Anisur Rahman, Correspondent

Dhaka: Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina's Awami League government is to initiate a process to "update the constitution" under an amendment with a plan to restore the "spirit" of the post-independence constitution of 1972, Law Minister Shafique Ahmad said.

"We have decided to ask the law commission to suggest specific steps to update the constitution to give the democracy an institutional shape and ensure good governance," the minister told Gulf News.

But a senior government leader preferring anonymity said a major objective of the proposed amendment was to restore the spirit of secularism and the 1971 Liberation War being backed by a landmark 2005 High Court judgment.

The judgment, however, was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court by the then government of ex-premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition government with Jamaat-e-Islami being its key partner.

Ahmad said the incumbent government decided not to press the appeal at the apex court but BNP secretary general Khondoker Delwar Hussain and several other opposition leaders appeared as "interveners" in the case against the High Court verdict.

Awami League general secretary and local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam, however, told reporters yesterday that "any change to the constitution will be made based on a popular consensus" though the landmark December 29, 2008 general elections installed them with three fourths majority empowering with absolute authority for the amendment.

The law minister also earlier in May this year said government was expected to keep Islamic words "Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim" in the constitution preamble despite plans to scrap the fifth amendment that incorporated the words.

He said "the secularism would automatically be restored in the constitution if the High Court verdict could be upheld on the amendment".

The Fifth Amendment that had given constitutional legitimacy to military governments after the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh's founder and Shaikh Hasina's father Bangabandhu Shaikh Mujibur Rahman in a military coup when the Islamic words meaning "in the name of Allah, most beneficial, most merciful", were incorporated in the preamble of the constitution.

Law ministry sources said apart from the basic principles of the constitution, the proposed 15th amendment would also seek changes in various provisions including the ones related to the interim caretaker government, parliamentary tenure and the local government systems.

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