Experts of civil society have urged for an inclusive constitution with a balanced power structure.
They came up with the call from a discussion meeting titled "Constitution of Bangladesh in the changing context of the country due to student-people uprising: Prospects and Responses" which was organized by BLAST and Bangla Pathshala Foundation.
The discussion meeting held at RC Majumdar auditorium of Dhaka University on Thursday afternoon.
Sara Hossain, Executive Director of BLAST and Senior Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court was present as moderator of the discussion.
In the meeting, advocate Hasnat Qayyum, Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan, Professor Rabiul Islam, Professor Muhammad Ekramul Haque were present.
Besides, writers, journalists, researchers, university teachers and lawyers also attended the program.
They discussed whether they want reforms or not, what kind of reforms they want, various inconsistencies in the constitution.
Professor Muhammad Ekramul Haque of Department of Law of Dhaka University emphasizes on deciding what people want first.
"We have to first decide what we want, if it is possible within this framework, and then do it. If we think that this is not possible in this framework, then the constitution has to be rewritten to meet this demand."
"If we talk about democratic society then we have to move towards inclusive society," he added.
Advocate Hasnat Qayyum expressed concern about the centralization of executive power in the country and said: "The power structure of the state needs to be changed as far as possible. This change will not be covered in the amendment, reforms are needed."
"Barring one or two, none of the amendments were due to the will of the people," he added.
Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan started his statement with "This is a working lawyer’s perspective about the issue."
"We should not be opportunitist to use this opportunity to advance our personal opinions about what the constitution should be. If you want to amend the constitution, you should say article by article that why this article is defective,”he stated.
He discussed various ways of amending the constitution. Stating one of them is by the parliament that is elected. He expressed concerns about the Islam-based political party's being participants in this process.
"This is a very dangerous process. Who will you invite to the discussion table? Jamaat will seek a seat in that discussion as well as Hefazat. Are we prepared to cooperate with them about the contents of the re-written constitution?"
Professor Rabiul Islam focuses on the inconsistencies within the constitution that constructs people’s identity.
He said: "At the same time, secularism and the state religion of Islam have been kept in the constitution. So Bangladesh is neither an inclusive society nor an exclusive society."
"Revolutionary constitution and constitutional revolution are two different things. The people now have to decide which one they want," he added.