Bangladesh Awami League and Latif Siddique at loggerheads

Abdul Latif Siddique has described the Awami League's decision to expel him from the party for his “anti-religion remarks” as a mistake.

The former posts and telecommunication minister termed the allegation against him “hard to imagine, false and baseless”.

“Even if it's agreed for the sake of discussion that I have made the remarks, the Awami League Central Working Committee has no jurisdiction to cancel my party membership on considering that.”

Latif said this yesterday in his reply to the Election Commission's July 16 notice that asked him to explain why his parliamentary seat would not be vacated.

On the other hand, the AL requested the commission to scrap Latif's parliament membership following the constitutional and the Representation of the People Order provisions. It cited article 66(4) of the constitution, article 12(1) of the RPO and section 178 of the rules of procedures of the parliament.

The ruling party made the request in its reply to an EC notice seeking the party's view on Latif's parliament membership. AL leaders Mrinal Kanti Das and ABM Reazul Kabir Kawsar submitted the letter, signed by AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, to the EC secretariat yesterday.

At a programme in the US on September 28 last year, Latif Siddique, lawmaker from Tangail-4, made some comments that allegedly were against Hajj, Tablighi Jamaat and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

On October 12, he was removed from the cabinet and from the party presidium, AL's highest policy-making body. He lost his primary membership in the AL 12 days later.

On October 14, the AL sent a show-cause notice to Latif as to why he won't be expelled from the party permanently for acting against the organisation's charter.

Latif at that time defended himself saying the AL dropped the word “Muslim” from its name in 1955 to give it a secular character. Moreover, the party ensured freedom of speech and expression through its declaration. And so, he can “express his feelings on any issue."

The party informed Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury of the decision on July 5, eight months after the expulsion. She later sought the EC's opinion in this regard.

In his reply to the EC, Latif Siddique said, “I gave the speech at that programme in New York as a representative of the government, which means I did it as a people's representative. There is no scope to consider that I gave the statement as a member of the Awami League. So the decision of my expulsion was made on the basis of a completely wrong explanation.

"So any new decision based on that decision will be wrong as well."

He then went on to request the EC to let the parliament speaker decide on his parliament membership, instead of holding hearings, as stipulated in article 66 (4) of the constitution.

However, the AL in its letter defended its decision, saying, "The decision of expelling Latif Siddique [from the party] was made unanimously following party constitution ... Now he is no more with the Awami League and thus, he has lost every legal right to remain a parliament member."

On vacating of a parliamentary seat, article 70(1) of the constitution states that "a person elected as a member of Parliament at an election at which he was nominated as a candidate by a political party shall vacate his seat if he resigns from that party or votes in Parliament against that party".