Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has announced that its newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) will not take their oaths if the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) refuses to be sworn in as members of the Constitution Reform Council.
Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, the Naib-e-Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, confirmed this decision to the media on Tuesday morning.
According to the schedule set by the Parliament Secretariat, the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected MPs of the 13th National Parliament is set for noon today. However, Jamaat’s participation hinges entirely on the actions of their political allies.
“We will go to the Parliament,” Abdullah Muhammad Taher stated. “However, if the BNP does not take the oath for the Constitution Reform Council, our newly elected MPs will not take any oath at all. We believe a parliament without reform is meaningless.”
The Parliament Secretariat had prepared a two-part ceremony: first for the oath of Members of Parliament, followed by a separate oath for the members of the Constitution Reform Council.
The BNP has already indicated that while its members will take the oath as MPs to form the government, they will decline to take a separate oath as members of the Constitution Reform Council, raising questions about the legal basis of the council in its current form.
