Finally, The National Citizens Party (NCP) is going to sign the 'July National Charter'. A six-member delegation led by the party's convener Nahid Islam and member secretary Akhtar Hossain will go to the official residence of Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus in Jamuna at 6 pm today, Monday.
This information was given in a message sent to the media by the NCP after 1:15 pm today. It said that the delegation will also include the party's central leaders Sarwar Tushar, Monira Sharmin, Javed Rasin and Zahirul Islam Musa.
Last Thursday, along with the 13th National Parliament election, a referendum was held on the constitutional proposals of the July National Charter. The 'Yes' vote won in the referendum, getting more than twice as many votes as the 'No' vote. As a result, the way has been opened for the implementation of the proposals related to the fundamental reforms of the state.
The NCP decided to sign the charter only after winning the 'Yes' vote in the referendum. This group, formed by the youth who led the July mass uprising, actively campaigned for a 'yes' vote in the referendum.
After the fall of the Awami League government, an interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus took office on August 8, 2024. After taking office, the government pledged to reform various sectors of the state. As part of this, reform commissions were formed in six sectors - the constitution, electoral system, judiciary, anti-corruption commission, police and public administration - in the first week of October 2024. Later, commissions were formed to formulate recommendations in several other sectors.
Of the recommendations of the six commissions formed in the first phase, 166 were identified as important. The activities of the National Consensus Commission began on February 15 last year with the aim of building consensus among political parties on these recommendations. After lengthy discussions with 30 political parties, the commission reached consensus on 84 reform proposals. The July National Charter was formulated based on these proposals.
Of these 84 proposals, 48 were constitutional. Other proposals can be implemented through government orders, ordinances or laws. The interim government has already implemented some recommendations.
However, 48 proposals related to the constitution cannot be implemented through ordinances. Therefore, a referendum was held on these proposals. Out of these, 19 proposals were identified by the National Consensus Commission as 'fundamental reforms'.
The 'July National Charter 2025' was signed at a ceremony held at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on October 17 last year. At that ceremony, 24 political parties and alliances including BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami signed the charter. Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus and members of the National Consensus Commission also signed. Later, another party signed the charter. However, the NCP did not participate in the signing ceremony at that time.
At a press conference the day before the signing of the charter, National Consensus Commission Vice-Chairman Professor Ali Riaz said that even if no party initially signed, there would be an opportunity to sign later.
Then, explaining the reason for not signing the charter, the NCP made three demands. They are that the draft of the July Charter Implementation Order should be published in advance; the order should be issued by the Chief Advisor; and if the referendum results in favor of the charter, the Note of Dissention will not be effective. In addition, they wanted that the elected parliament, according to the referendum verdict, would amend the constitution using its constituent powers and the amended constitution would be named ‘Bangladesh Constitution, 2026’.
Later, on November 13, the President issued the ‘July National Charter (Constitutional Amendment) Implementation Order, 2025’. The referendum was held on February 12 under that order.
After the referendum verdict was announced in favor of the charter, this signing initiative of the NCP has created new significance in the political arena.
