"Why Didn't You Sign It First?" Bangladesh PM To Opposition On July Charter

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has hit back at the Jamaat-E-Islami Bangladesh and National Citizens Party and said his party's commitment to the 'July Charter' stands firm and reminded the opposition that his party was the first one to sign it. 

The contentious 'July Charter' was a document that was meant to chart the path for the future of Bangladesh and was also given legal validity through a referendum held alongside the February 12 elections in Bangladesh. The document was also seen as a mechanism by the interim government to restrict powers of the incoming elected government. 

Responding to the Opposition, Tarique Rahman said, "If you are so pained, why didn't you sign it first? I want to tell the people of the country from this public meeting, the media is here and through them I want to tell the entire country clearly, the July Charter, which we signed off on in the South Plaza of the National Parliament, when Muhammad Yunus had called for the signing of the July Charter, the first party to go there and sign on the July Charter was the BNP." 

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"We will make every alphabet, every line, every promise in the July Charter, which the BNP has signed, a reality. The people of Bangladesh have given the BNP the responsibility to govern the country, and this charter has been signed by the BNP and others too. Those who are in opposition now, when we went there, we saw there was a dilemma on whether they would sign or not. And they have another party with them, which did not even sign the document at that time. Suddenly, after the election, they went and signed on the document," Rahman said in a public meeting in Tangail, Bangladesh. 

"So, the first party to sign on the July Charter was the BNP. Those who scream hoarse about the July Charter but signed it only after the election, we want to ask them, if you are so pained, why didn't you sign on the document first?"

Questions have been raised over the Bangladesh government's commitment to the July Charter by parties like the Jamaat-E-Islami Bangladesh and National Citizens Party. These opposition parties see the July charter as a mechanism to restrict the powers of the elected government. The Jamaat, which is a headline Islamic force, has accused the BNP government of blocking reforms and said it "will stay in Parliament only as long as it can fight from within", and the Jamaat chief said, "The streets are our primary arena, not Parliament."

This comes as the BNP navigates the challenges of governing the country amidst both external and internal challenges. The BNP has held off on some issues that the unelected interim government had set in motion like the rejection of the interim government's ordinance that would have significantly expanded the powers of the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh. 

Commenting on the issue, Bangladeshi expert David Bergman says, "The conclusion is difficult to escape: the interim government ensured there was no functioning human rights oversight for the entirety of its time in office. Then, in its final days, it enacted significantly strengthened legislation and installed new commissioners - guaranteeing that this more powerful NHRC would only become operative under its successor." 

"While the BNP would have been well-advised to accept the new legislation on its merits, one can readily appreciate its frustration. It found itself inheriting a newly empowered human rights body that had been conspicuously absent throughout the interim period - a body that would now scrutinise the incoming government with powers the outgoing one had never allowed to be used against itself," Bergman added.