Political parties reached a consensus partially on the appointment of the Chief Justice (CJ) and Chief Adviser (CA) at a meeting with the National Consensus Commission on Thursday.
Consensus was reached on amending the Article 95 of the Constitution and appointing the Chief Justice from among the judges of the Appellate Division, the Commission's vice-president, Prof Ali Riaz, said.
He commented that the President has no such obligation in the existing Constitution in appointing the Chief Justice.
Prof Riaz made these remarks while briefing journalists after the 11th day of the second phase of discussions between the political parties and the National Consensus Commission at the Foreign Service Academy in the city.
However, there are two opinions on whether the senior-most serving person or one of the two senior-most serving persons will be appointed the Chief Justice. The commission has decided to continue discussions on this issue, he added.
Prof Riaz said that in the discussion on the declaration of a state of emergency on July 7, there was a consensus on two issues: amending the Article 141 (Ka) of the Constitution and ensuring that the declaration of a state of emergency is not misused as a political tool.
Noting that two proposals were discussed regarding the caretaker government, the vice-chairman of the Commission said that every political party wants to establish a system with a caretaker government that is practically flawless as far as possible and that reflects the aspirations of the long-standing movement and struggle. He said that more discussion is needed on this issue as well.
Meanwhile, in the previous talks, there was a discussion on removing the provision for declaring a state of emergency due to 'internal disturbances' in the amendment to the Article 141 (Ka) and adding a provision for the approval of the cabinet instead of the signature of the Prime Minister to declare a state of emergency.
He also said that the Commission and the political parties feel that this issue needs to be made more specific. What other issues can be added in this regard will be clear in the discussion next week. Representatives of 30 political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and National Citizen Party (NCP), participated in the discussion with the National Consensus Commission.
BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters after the meeting that BNP and all other parties in the previous sitting had agreed on amending the Article 141 (Ka). They also agreed on abolishing the section of declaring emergency on political ground.
UNB adds; despite being the central issue in Thursday's second-round talks of the National Consensus Commission, discussions on the caretaker government system ended without any decision.
The commission has decided to suspend deliberations on the matter, political leaders present at the meeting said.
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