Dhaka : A nomenclature update as ‘Janoganotantric Bangladesh’ through constitutional overhaul has been proposed among other recommendations like changes to the fundamental state principles, bicameral parliament, and curtailed of power of the prime minister.
Decentralisation of the judiciary with high court benches in divisions and the formation of national constitutional council for making appointments to key constitutional posts are also among the constitution-reform commission recommendations.
The reform commission on constitutional reform has also proposed reintroducing interim government to hold general election in the post-uprising Bangladesh.
It also stipulates that none can be prime minister for more than two terms and the tenure of parliament will be 4 years instead of the present 5 years.
Chairman of the commission Prof Ali Reaz submitted its report Wednesday to Chief Adviser of the interim government Professor Muhammad Yunus who sees in it seeds of a new national charter upholding the spirit of the ‘July Revolution’.
Its proposal says the parliament will be composed of two houses-lower house which will be named National Assembly and upper house which will be named Senate.
The members of the lower house of the bicameral parliament will be elected directly and the members of the upper house will be elected through proportional votes.
One recommendation also reduces the minimum age for contesting parliament polls to 21years from existing 25 years.
About the formation of the lower house it says the number of seats in the assembly will be 400 instead of present 300 as100 seats will be reserved for women, who will be elected through direct elections contested by only women candidates.
According to the recommendations a lawmaker cannot hold more than one post out of the three positions which are prime minister, leader of the house and head of a political party.
It also proposes that the political parties have to nominate 10 per cent of their candidates for the lower house from the youth.
The recommendations say a lawmaker from the treasury can vote against his party in the lower house except during the voting for passage of the Finance Bill.
The commission also proposes reducing the tenure of the president from 5 years to 4 years, and introduction of an electoral college for electing the President.
Members of the both Houses of parliament, district council representatives and city council representatives will be the members of this electoral college.
About the interim government for holding elections the proposals say a 15-member interim government will be formed 15 days before the end of the tenure of the parliament.
And if the parliament is dissolved immaturely, it will be formed within 15 days.
This interim government will be headed by chief adviser who will run the operation of the interim government with maximum 15 advisers.
The commission proposes forming the National Constitution Council to recommend names to the president for appointment in the constitutional posts like the Chief Election Commissioner and other commissioners of the EC, Attorney- General, ACC commissioners including ACC chief, Chief of the Army.
