As a part of the government’s move to convert the old ordinances into permanent laws, two bills have been placed in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS).
‘The Delimitation of Constituencies Bill, 2021’ and ‘The Gandhi Ashram (Board of Trustees) Bill, 2021’ were placed in the Parliament on Saturday (July 3) to replace the related ordinances that were promulgated during the military regime and declared illegal by the High Court (HC).
Law Minister Anisul Haq placed the two bills which were sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the respective ministries for further scrutiny. The parliamentary watchdog was asked to submit its reports within 60 days.
Out of a total of 59 military-regime ordinances, promulgated during the regimes of Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad which remain in force till now, two ordinances are now in the process of becoming laws. Work is ongoing to turn rest of the old ordinances into permanent laws, said Urmi Tamanna, Deputy Secretary of Cabinet Decisions Implementation Coordination Branch of the Cabinet Division who looks after the matter.
The Delimitation of Constituencies Bill, 2021 was designed aiming to make a permanent law instead of the existing ‘Delimitation of Constituencies Ordinance 1976’, which was promulgated during the military regime of Ziaur Rahman.
According to the proposed law, the Election Commission (EC) shall, for elections to the seats in the Parliament, divide the country into many single territorial constituencies as the number of members to be elected as per the Constitution.
The constituencies shall be so delimited, having regard to administrative convenience, that each constituency is a compact area and in doing so due regard shall be had, as far as practicable, to the distribution of population as given in the latest census report.
The EC shall, after making such enquiries and examining such records as it may deem necessary, publish in the official gazette a preliminary list of territorial constituencies specifying the areas proposed to be included in each such constituency together with a notice inviting objections and suggestions within such period as may be specified in the notice.
Meanwhile, the Gandhi Ashram (Board of Trustees) Bill, 2021 has been placed in Parliament to replace the related ordinance that was also promulgated during the regime of Ziaur Rahman.
The bill was designed in Bengali version incorporating no new provisions in the Gandhi Ashram (Board of Trustees) Ordinance, 1975. According to the proposed law, the government will appoint Chairman of the seven-member board of trustees.
The Chairman and the other Trustees shall hold office for a period of three years. However, the government may terminate the appointment of the Chairman or any other Trustee before the expiration of the term.
The head office of the Board shall be at Jayag in Noakhali. The regional office or branch can be set up in other places taking prior permission from the government.
It can be mentioned that at least 172 ordinances were issued during the 1975 (August)-1978 and 1982-1986 (September) military regimes. Many of the old ordinances have already been replaced with permanent laws.
Urmi Tamanna of Cabinet Decision told the Bangladesh Post that they hope that the necessary old ordinances will become laws in a few days after completing the necessary process.
