BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed talking to reporters during a break in the third day of talks with the National Consensus Commission. Photo: BSS

DHAKA, April 22, 2025 (BSS) - BNP does not want to see any controversial person to be appointed as Chief Justice in the future as the party has given its opinion on making it mandatory to appoint one of the three most senior judges of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice.

Party’s Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed said this while talking to reporters during a break in the third day of talks with the National Consensus Commission today at the LD Hall of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban here.

During the talks, the Judicial Reforms Commission has recommended appointing a senior Supreme Court judge as Chief Justice. BNP disagreed on the matter.

However, BNP agreed on the two-thirds vote of both houses of parliament in the impeachment process of the President, Salahuddin Ahmed said, adding that it also agreed on the appointment of the Ombudsman.
 
“However, we have given our opinion that one of the three most senior judges of the Appellate Division can be made mandatory for the appointment of the Chief Justice," he said.

The BNP leader said the commission’s proposal was that the senior most judge of the Appellate Division should become the Chief Justice. 

“Our proposal is that some inconsistencies have been seen in the state before.

 It would not be right to specify everything to us in every field. If there is no alternative, something bad can happen in the future. Because, since we want to make the judiciary completely independent, in that case, if a controversial person becomes the Chief Justice like before, it will not be beneficial for the state," he said.

Salahuddin said there should be at least one alternative here, it would be better if at least two or three of the senior most judges of the Appellate Division are in this option. 

“However, this place has not been accepted yet. Discussions are still ongoing,” he said.

BNP agreed with most of the recommendations of the commission, Salahuddin Ahmed said, adding that they talked about the situation before the 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th and 15th amendments to the Constitution in terms of running the state. 

“BNP agrees with abolishing secularism. They also agree with bringing equality, human dignity and social justice. BNP has talked about bringing these as fundamental rights,” he said.

He said the Council of Ministers is run under the authority of the Prime Minister but the commission proposed running it ‘collectively’ by the cabinet led by the Prime Minister.
 
“If that is the case; then there is no such thing as the Prime Minister’s authority here. We have said the Prime Minister should have the authority,” he said.

Referring to BNP’s commitment to bring balance between the powers of the Prime Minister and the President, Salahuddin Ahmed said, “We proposed giving a person a chance to become the Prime Minister again after a break following two consecutive terms. However, BNP did not agree with the proposal that the same person will not be the leader of the parliament and the party chief”. 

There has been a discussion on the issue of one person not holding the posts of Prime Minister, party chief and leader of the parliament, he said, adding here, the majority party that is the parliamentary party decides who will be the prime minister. 

“It is not necessary that the party chief will be the prime minister. There are such examples. But the option should be kept. And the one who becomes the prime minister will be the leader of the parliament. This is the tradition”, he said.  
There are examples where some countries have separated the leader of the parliament. But here the leader of the parliament has no executive power. Here the leader of the parliament and the prime minister are pretty much an inseparable part,” said Salahuddin.

Regarding the caretaker government, he said, they agreed on this issue that the council of advisers will have 14 members. 

“We agree on the routine work of the advisory council. If the chief adviser resigns, we agree on that, one member of the advisory board will be nominated. We also agree on the issue of local government institutions. We completely agree that no party symbol will be allocated in any local government election,” he said.

“We are fairly in agreement about the violation of human rights by law enforcement agencies. However, it needs to be discussed in more detail, because, law enforcement agencies include three branches of the armed forces as well as police and other forces, in the constitution,” said Salahuddin.
 
“So, if we suddenly put a provision in the case of law enforcement agencies, it may become unbalanced. That is why it needs to be tested further. We can come to an agreement on one thing. But what is a matter of the state, a matter of constitution, a matter of state governance, we have to think deeply and bring it into the constitution,” he added. 

Salahuddin in the case of the legislature, BNP agreed on a bicameral parliament. 
“The commission has named it; the Senate for the upper house, the National Assembly for the lower house. We agree on this. The parliament will be bicameral, with 400 seats in the lower house, of which 100 seats for women and 100 seats in the upper house, BNP agrees on the recommendation. However, we have differences of opinion on the method of election of reserved seats for women,” he said.

Regarding the power of the President, Salahuddin said they talked about increasing the power of the president where what powers can be delegated to the president and what the president can do without discussing with the prime minister will be detailed. “We are not revealing this at the moment,” he added.
BNP Chairperson’s Advisory Council member Ismail Zabiullah, lawyer Ruhul Quddus Kajal and retired bureaucrat Abu Mohammad Moniruzzaman also joined the talks as BNP delegates.

Consensus Commission Vice-Chairman Professor Ali Riaz chaired the discussion. Members of the commission Justice Md. Emdadul Haque, Badiul Alam Majumder, Iftekharuzzaman, Safar Raj Hossain and Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor (Consensus) Monir Haider also joined it.

The consensus commission is holding discussions with political parties on the important recommendations of the five commissions with a view to building consensus on the reform issues. As part of this, discussions are underway with BNP.