JS special body seeks legal vetting

The parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment has sought opinions from the law ministry and the law commission about a draft report on the apex court's verdicts on the fifth amendment and the constitution.
The Parliament Secretariat drafted the report after examining and analysing the two verdicts delivered by the High Court and Appellate Division that declared the fifth amendment illegal and void.
Committee Chief Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Co-chair Suranjit Sengupta held a meeting with the law minister, the chairman of the law commission and senior officials concerned to discuss the report yesterday.
Both the law ministry and the law commission were provided with copies of the draft report.
The committee asked them to give opinions on the draft report on Sunday when it sits again at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
The committee at its first meeting on July 29 assigned its chief and co-chair to examine and analyse the verdicts to find out whether any part of it is inconsistent with the constitution.
Suranjit, co-chair of the committee, said the parliament secretariat had prepared the draft but declined to elaborate any further.
He said many martial law proclamations, regulations and orders were issued during the military regimes between August 1975 and April 9, 1979.
The committee has been looking into the orders and changes brought to the constitution by the then martial law administrators, he said.
"We are examining the entire constitution from its preamble to the last article -- what was the position of the constitution of 1972 and what was done in the last 40 years," Suranjit said at his office in the parliament building.
The apex court in its verdict cancelled many actions of the then martial law regimes but also condoned a few, he told a press briefing after the meeting.
Law Commission Chairman MA Rashid said he received a copy of the draft report but was yet to go through it.
The commission will give its opinion to the parliamentary committee on Sunday, he added.