The Jamaat-e-Islami faces an uncertain future with the High Court all set to deliver a verdict on Thursday on a petition seeking cancellation of its registration.
The verdict would determine whether the party can take part in the forthcoming parliament elections.
It comes at a time when the demand for outlawing the party, blamed for war crimes during the Liberation War, is mounting.
The registration became mandatory for all political parties seeking to contest polls in 2008. Jamaat registered itself with the Election Commission that year.
The bench of justices M Moazzam Husain, M Enayetur Rahim, and Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque kept the verdict pending after hearing on the petition seeking cancellation of Jamaat’s registration ended on Jun 12.
The High Court issued a ruling on Jan 27, 2009, after 25 people, including Bangladesh Tariqat Federation’s Secretary General Syed Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, Jaker Party’s Secretary General Munshi Abdul Latif and Sammilita Islami Jote’s President Maulana Ziaul Hasan, filed a joint petition.
It had asked the EC to explain as to why the party’s registration should not be declared illegal. The court’s ruling specifically referred to sections 90 B(1) and B(2), and 90(C) of the Representation of the People Order (RPO).
Jamaat’s chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed and the Election Commission Secretary were given six weeks time to reply, but they did not, according to plaintiff lawyer Tania Ameer.
The case was later shifted to the bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudury .
On the day the hearing ended, Tania Ameer said Jamaat’s charter was in conflict with the Constitution. “It was not eligible for registration.”
Defence lawyer Abdur Razzaq, also a Jamaat Assistant Secretary General, however claimed no clause of his party was in ‘conflict’ with the Constitution.
Ameer had earlier said the defendants were yet to reply to the 2009 ruling.
During the hearing of the petition, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain and Barrister Abdur Razzaq had filed for power of attorney on behalf of the Jamaat-e-Islami, she said.
The petition argues on four points based on which the party’s registration must be cancelled.
The first argument is that the Jamaat in principle does not recognise people as the source of all powers and also the undisputed power of the people’s representatives to make laws.
Secondly, the RPO prohibits registration of communal parties, and ‘it is clear from the acts and beliefs of the Jamaat that it is a communal party’.
Thirdly, a registered political party cannot in any way discriminate on grounds of religion or gender. But the Jammat’s charter does not allow any woman or non-Muslim to hold its top post.
And fourthly, the Jamaat is a unit of a foreign organisation born in India with units all over the world.
Source: Bd news24
