Staff Correspondent:

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Asif Nazrul on Sunday said drafting a new constitution would take a long time.

“The Jatiya Sangsad formulates the constitution. In our neighbouring country, it reportedly took 8-9 years to complete the process. Therefore, it may take a long time to formulate a new constitution,” he said.

The adviser was speaking at a discussion titled “Seven Proposals of the Nagorik Jote for Constitutional Reform” organised by the civic initiative “Nagorik Coalition” at the auditorium of the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka, focusing on reforming the democratic framework of the state.

Asif said, “Then, should we continue with the 1972 constitution? Until a new constitution is formulated, the next parliament will act as the authorities of the constitution. They will make amendments to the ’72 constitution if necessary.”

The law adviser said when the constituent assembly begins its work, it will continue the task of formulating the new constitution.

“I believe that process could take 2-3 years…during this period, the next parliament will keep bringing about changes to certain fundamental issues – powers of the prime minister, Article 17, decentralisation of the higher judiciary, and judicial independence.”

Speaking about the inclusion of the July Charter in the constitution, he said it has been given considerable importance.

“We have assumed that there won’t be broad consensus on a number of points of the Charter. In that case, it may be possible to retain some of its fundamental issues.”

Regarding the matter of the prime minister’s two-term office, Asif said, “This is a popular demand and I support it. But simply saying the prime minister should serve two terms is not enough, you need to make convincing arguments.

“Find out in which other countries this system exists. In fact, no country has the two-term limit for the prime minister…two-term alone is not the solution. The most important thing is to reduce the power of the prime minister,” he added.