Cancel 8th amendment

Leaders of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee urged the government to immediately cancel the 8th constitutional amendment containing the words 'Islam as state religion'. This is in the light of recent Supreme Court judgement that scrapped the 5th amendment, says a press release yesterday.
They made the appeal at its two-day long urgent meeting held at WVA auditorium in the city starting July 30 with Prof Kabir Chowdhury, president of advisory council of the Nirmul Committee, in the chair.
They said the 8th amendment is against the spirit of original constitution of 1972, which was made in the spirit of the liberation war.
The committee leaders also demanded the government to remove the words 'Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim' from the constitution.
The speakers said two generals-Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, who had captured state power illegally, had added the words 'Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim' and 'Islam as state religion' in the constitution to bring back a Pakistani trend to Bangladesh.
On political purpose, Zia and Ershad had cancelled both the provisions of secularism and restriction on formation of political parties on the basis of religion, from the original constitution, they said.
The press release added that the meeting decided to hold public meetings and seminars titled as 'Bangabandhu, constitution of 1972 and trial of war criminals' across the country from today to August 31. This is to observe programmes on killing of Bangabandhu and his family members and the month of mourning.
Nirmul Committee President Justice Mohammad Gholam Rabbani and Adviser Prof Ajoy Roy presided over different sessions of the urgent meeting. Shahriar Kabir, Shyamali Nasrin Chowdhury, Ferdousy Priyabhashini, Momtaj Latif, Shirin Banu Mitil, Shamim Akhter, Advocate Khandaker Abdul Mannan, Syed Shafiqul Alam, Shafayet Ahmed Khan, Chandan Shil, Joidul Hossain and Mafizul Islam also addressed the meeting.
Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee is a forum for secular Bangladesh and trial of war criminals of 1971.