'Hacking, slashing' left constitution's essence in ruins, say speakers

Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government, speaks at a discussion organised by Shekar Sandhan at Dhaka Reporter's Unity yesterday. Photo: Focus Bangla

Speakers at a discussion yesterday said the country's constitution had been “hacked and slashed” so many times over the years that its very essence now remains in ruins.
What was meant to be a secular constitution with democracy as its core principle has now become a tool for political games, they added.
A book “Muktijuddher Dalil Londobhondo Ebong Otopor” (Documents of the Liberation War in disarray and afterwards) was unveiled at the discussion in Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Prof Abu Sayeed, an Awami League (AL) leader and former minister, has authored the book.
The speakers said the “Documents of the Liberation War” in the book's title refer to the country's constitution.
“Disarray is a very soft word for what has been done to the constitution. It needs a stronger and stricter word,” said noted columnist and writer Syed Abul Maqsud.
He observed that the way the constitution was treated reflects the country's present situation, with bureaucrats running the government instead of the politicians “who earned the country's liberation”.
“The disarray happened at two levels, one at the constitutional level and the other at the legal level,” said Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government.
He said the country must take lessons from its past mistakes instead of repeating them.
Senior AL leader Tofail Ahmed said the constitution, the country's first document, was accurate.
“It was a praiseworthy document and if it was messed up, it was done after 1975,” he said, adding that the present government was trying to reinstate the constitution to its original state of 1972.
“We have come a long way in that regard. But it is easier said than done,” he said.
The problem lies in the way leadership was created, said Abdul Jalil, a veteran AL leader, adding that in a democracy leaders are created or rise through a continuous process, something that is not being followed in the country at present.
Noted journalist Mizanur Rahman Khan moderated the programme.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman, noted writer and historian Prof Syed Anwar Hossain and former AL organising secretary Mahmudur Rahman Manna also spoke at the discussion.