Shafique favours ban on religion-based parties

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Law Minister Shafique Ahmed has said the ban on religion-based parties will remain in force with the Appellate Division upholding the verdict that High Court (HC) had delivered by rejecting the Fifth Amendment to the constitution.
The minister, however, said at the secretariat Monday that there was no reason to doubt that the constitution would still begin in the name of Allah, reports bdnews24.com.
"And Bismillah will still be there."
A day after Appellate Division granted withdrawal of a government appeal challenging the 2005 HC ruling, Mr Ahmed said the government would now seek suggestions from the Law Commission on the issue.
He said the Commission would advise the government in connection with the provisions of the 1972 constitution, included or dropped because of the Fifth Amendment passed in April 1979, legalising all regimes between August 15, 1975 and 1979.
He said the government would not allow political parties to use religion for political purposes.
The Eighth Amendment of the constitution in June 1988 adopted Islam as the state religion.
"We have decided to withdraw the leave to appeal (seeking to challenge the HC ruling) as we have faith in the judgment."
The Fifth Amendment was meant to provide constitutional legitimacy to the governments in power-military or otherwise-after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
The ruling government in 2005, an alliance government led by BNP, founded by Ziaur Rahman, filed a leave to appeal on which the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court ruling.
But the present government in May 2009 petitioned the court for withdrawal of the leave to appeal.
However, there are two more leaves to appeal pending against the High Court ruling.
The Appellate Division set January 18 to hear the two leaves to appeal filed by BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and three Jamaat-e-Islami backed lawyers Munshi Ahsan Kabir, Tajul Islam and Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan.