The Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh was the constituent assembly of Bangladesh. It was the country's provisional parliament between 1971 and 1973. In 1972, it drafted and adopted the Constitution of Bangladesh. The assembly was dominated by the

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...

, with a minority being independent lawmakers.

Creation

Prior to the 1971

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...

, the first general election of Pakistan saw 169 seats in East Pakistan being contested for the

National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...

and 300 seats for the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. The

party ran on the platform of developing a new Pakistani constitution based on the 1966 Six Points. The Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats in the National Assembly and 288 out of 300 seats in the Provincial Assembly. Despite gaining the right to form a government, it was not allowed to take power by the erstwhile military junta in West Pakistan. The delay in the transfer of power sparked the liberation war. During the war, elected representatives met in Mujibnagar on 17 April 1971. They signed the

Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence The independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971 at the onset of the Bangladesh Liberation War by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; the following day the declaration was broadcast by Major Ziaur Rahman in a radio broadcast. On 1 ...

, which was declared as a provisional constitution. The elected representatives were transformed into a constituent assembly. After the war ended, the assembly convened in January 1972.

Members

The initial tally of members was 469. However, the tally dropped to 404 after the war. Ten legislators had died, of whom five were killed by the Pakistan Army. 23 were disqualified or expelled from their party, the Awami League; and two defected to Pakistan. Shah Abdul Hamid was elected as the assembly's speaker and Mohammad Mohammadullah as deputy speaker.

Rules of Procedure

The Rules of Procedure was adopted in the first two-day plenary session.

Drafting committee

The Constitution Drafting Committee was formed on 11 April 1972. It had 34 members with Kamal Hossain as chairman. Razia Banu was its only female member. Barrister Amirul Islam and Advocate Suranjit Sengupta were among the prominent members on the committee. Sengupta was a vocal member of the opposition bench. Members of the committee are included below. The abbreviations MNA stands for "Member of the National Assembly" and MPA for "Member of the Provincial Assembly". # Kamal Hossain (MNA- Dhaka-9) # Md. Lutfor Rahman (MNA- Rangpur-4) #

Abu Sayeed Abu Sayeed is a politician from Pabna district of Bangladesh, organizer of the War of Liberation, and former Minister of State for Information who was a Member of Parliament for the then Pabna 8 and Pabna-1 constituencies. Career Sayeed was a ...

(MNA- Pabna-5) # M Abdur Rahim (MPA-Dinajpur-7) # M Amir-ul Islam (MNA- Kushtia-1) # Mohammad Nurul Islam Manjur (MNA- Bakerganj-3) # Abdul Muntakim Chowdhury (MNA- Sylhet-5) # Khatish Chandra (MPA-Bakerganj-15) # Suranjit Sengupta (MNA- Sylhet-2) # Syed Nazrul Islam (MNA- Mymensingh-17) # Tajuddin Ahmad (MNA- Dhaka-5) #

Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad (also spelled Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed; – 5 March 1996) was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the President of Bangladesh from 15 August to 6 November 1975, after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was part ...

(MNA- Cumilla -8) #

AHM Qamaruzzaman Abul Hasnat Muhammad Qamaruzzaman (1926 – 3 November 1975) was a Bangladeshi politician, government minister and a leading member of the Awami League. A member of the Mujibnagar Government, Kamaruzzaman was murdered along with Syed Nazrul Isla ...

(MNA- Rajshahi-6) # Abdul Mamin Talukder (MNA- Pabna-3) # Abdur Rouf (MNA- Rangpur-11) # Mohammad Baitullah (MNA- Rajshahi -3) # Barrister

Badal Rashid Badal Rashid (1929–1993) () was a Awami League politician and the former Member of Parliament for Kushtia-6. Career Rashid was elected to parliament from Kushtia-6 as an Awami League candidate in 1973. He was a veteran of the Bangladesh Libe ...

, Bar-at-Law. P.A Of Tajuddin Ahmad Of Mujib Nagar Sarkar. # Khandaker Abdul Hafiz (MNA- Jessore 7) # Shaukat Ali Khan (MNA- Tangail-2) # Md Humayun Khalid # Asaduzzaman Khan (MPA- Jessore-10) # A.K. Mosharraf Hossain Akhand (MNA-Mymensingh-6) # Abdul Momin # Shamsuddin Molla (MNA-Faridpur-4) # Sheikh Abdur Rahman (MNA-Khulna-2) # Fakir Sahab Uddin Ahmed # Khurshed Alam (MNA-Cumilla-7) # Sirajul Haque (MNA-Cumilla-4) # Dewan Abu Abbas (MNA-Cumilla-5) # Abdur Rashid (MNA-Noakhali-) # Hafez Habibur Rahman (MNA-Cumilla-12) # Nurul Islam Chowdhury (MPA-Chattragram-6) # Muhammad Khaled (MPA-Chattragram—5) # Begum Razia Bano (women's seats, National Assembly)

Citizenship debate

The minority Chakma lawmaker

Manabendra Narayan Larma Manabendra Narayan Larma (September 15, 1939 - November 10, 1983), also known as M.N. Larma, was a Jumma Chakma politician and Member of Parliament of Bangladesh. A leading proponent of the rights of the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he ...

protested the use of the term "

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

" to describe all Bangladeshi citizens. Larma said in his speech that "Under no definition or logic can a Chakma be a Bengali or a Bengali be a Chakma… As citizens of Bangladesh we are all Bangladeshis, but we also have a separate ethnic identity...".

Article 70

Under the interim constitution, law making powers resided with the executive branch. When K. M. Obaidur Rahman, an Awami League lawmaker, raised a question as to why the constituent assembly was not given legislative powers, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became annoyed. Subsequently, on the advice of the prime minister, President

Abu Sayeed Chowdhury Abu Sayeed Chowdhury (31 January 1921 – 2 August 1987) was a jurist and the President of Bangladesh. Besides that, he held the positions of the Chairmen of the United Nations Commission on Human rights, the vice-chancellor of the University ...

introduced the Bangladesh Constituent Assembly (Cessation of Membership) Order 1972. The order stipulated that any resolution by a lawmaker without the approval of his/her party would result in expulsion from the assembly. The order inspired Article 70 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, which bans free votes and crossing the floor.

Enactment

The Assembly approved the constitution on 4 November 1972, and it took effect on 16 December 1972—a day commemorated as Victory day in Bangladesh. Once the constitution took effect, the constituent assembly became the provisional parliament of Bangladesh until the first elections under the new constitution took place in 1973.

Legacy

The constitution founded the

unitary Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigroup ...

parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). There are a number ...

in Bangladesh. It laid down a list of

fundamental rights in Bangladesh The fundamental rights of the people of Bangladesh have been guaranteed in Part III (Article 26-47) of the constitution of Bangladesh. All past laws inconsistent with these rights are made void by the Constitution, and it directs the State not to ma ...

. The original 1972 constitution is often cited as the most democratic in Bangladesh's history, given later amendments which undermined the constitution's democratic credentials, including the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of MPs to vote and debate in parliament. However, the constitution left wide powers for judicial review and judicial precedent, making Bangladesh a part of the common law world. The first blows to the original constitution came in 1973 and 1974, when Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's government passed amendments that gave the state the power to suspend fundamental rights during a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

. In 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman enacted a presidential government under a

one party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

. Following his assassination, quasi-military rulers continued the presidential form of government, but restored multiparty politics. An executive presidency lasted till 1990, when parliamentary democracy was restored; and the presidency returned to its ceremonial nature. As a result of the controversial Article 70, Bangladesh has never seen a

no-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

motion to remove a prime minister, even though the country's prime ministers are often accused of dictatorship and incompetence. The lack of checks and balances is often criticized. The dominance of left-wing parties led by the Awami League in the constituent assembly resulted in numerous references to socialism in the document. The socialist influence contradicts with Bangladesh's largely free market economy. The citizenship debate of "Bengali v Bangladeshi" contributed to a sense of alienation among the indigenous hill population in the country's southeast, and was seen as a factor behind the Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict, which lasted for two decades until 1997. The unitary state laid down by the constitution has been a stumbling block for decentralizing Bangladesh's judiciary. When the government created High Courts in cities like Sylhet, Rajshahi and Chittagong in 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that it was in contradiction of the unitary state.

References

{{reflist Bangladesh Bangladesh Liberation War Constitution of Bangladesh