Jamaat Leader Claims Referendum Rejects BNP Dissent, Urges Government Action

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar has claimed that 70 percent of voters rejected the BNP’s note of dissent on the July Charter through a “Yes” vote in the recent referendum.

Addressing Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, Parwar said, “Not only the people, but Prime Minister Tarique Rahman himself surely voted ‘Yes,’ as he had called for it. Will you now stand in Parliament against your own vote? Will you deny your own mandate? That would be an endless deception.”

He made the remarks on Sunday while speaking at the closing session of a day-long national convention organized by the Reform Implementation Committee of the National Citizen Party (NCP) at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) in Kakrail, Dhaka.

The event, titled “National Convention on Energy, Economy, Reform and Referendum,” focused in its final session on “The July Charter, Reform, and Referendum in Building a Democratic State.”

Calling on the BNP to convene a session of the Constitutional Reform Council, Parwar said the crisis had been created by the BNP-led government and must be resolved by it. “The ball is now in the government’s court. You must take the shot. If you fail to act on time or make the wrong move, it could backfire,” he warned.

Parwar further alleged that those elected in the recent national election have become a major obstacle to establishing a democratic state structure. He criticized the government for its delayed support of the referendum, noting that it did not question the legality of the presidential order issued on November 13 before coming to power.

Accusing the BNP of misleading the public, he said, “They claim the opposition is confusing public, but in reality, people now see that the সরকার (government) itself is creating confusion by distinguishing between the referendum and the July Charter.”

He also alleged that the BNP, using its parliamentary majority, is disregarding the votes of nearly 50 million people. “Parliament is never sovereign. The will of the people is the supreme law. In the referendum, voters directly exercised their power and rejected your note of dissent,” he said.

The session was chaired by NCP Convener and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam and moderated by the party’s Senior Joint Convener Ariful Islam Adib. Other speakers included Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis Ameer Maulana Mamunul Haque, AB Party Chairman Mojibur Rahman, Khelafat Majlis Joint Secretary General Abdul Jalil, and Nagorik Oikya Joint Secretary General Sakib Anwar.