Bangladesh's top court finds religion in politics illegal

Dhaka : Bangladesh's apex court yesterday declared illegal the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution in 1979, that allowed religion-based politics and legitimised the post-1975 regimes after a coup toppled the country's post-independence government.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Tafazzul Islam, pronounced the verdict upholding an earlier High Court order, which rejected two leave-to-appeal petitions after a six-member bench of the highest court reached the decision after six days of hearing on the opposition petitions.

The Secretary General of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khondker Delwar Hussain, and three lawyers of their crucial ally Jamaat-e-Islami filed the petitions challenging the High Court verdict.

The amendment legitimised the governments that had been in power following the coup of August 15, 1975, which killed Bangladesh's founder and incumbent Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina's father ‘Bangabandhu' Shaikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members.

The then deputy army chief general Ziaur Rahman subsequently emerged as the leader of Bangladesh and ascended to presidency, floating the BNP as a political party, while his regime scrapped an earlier constitutional ban on religion-based politics.

The August 2005 High Court judgment had also rendered illegal the regimes of Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmad, Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem and Ziaur Rahman between August 15, 1975 and April 9, 1979.

Law Minister Shafique Ahmad earlier said the government awaited the apex court verdict to take a decision on banning religion-based political parties to comply with the landmark High Court judgment.

Restoration

"The original spirit of the Constitution will be restored if the implementation of the High Court verdict is cleared by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court," Shafique Ahmad earlier told Gulf News.

The Fifth Amendment was carried out during late President Ziaur Rahman's BNP government in 1979 and allowed the religion-based political parties and added the Arabic words Bism Allah Al Rahman Al Rahim or "in the name of God, the most merciful, benevolent in the preamble".

Shafique Ahmad, however, said the words Bism Allah Al Rahman Al Rahim in the Preamble of the constitution would remain intact as the High Court verdict did not say anything about the words and those were part of the Constitution's preamble, not of the "main body".