A proposal to create the post of vice-president has come up in discussions on how to form a caretaker government.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, who chairs the parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment, says some participants have floated the idea.
Speaking after the committee’s ninth meeting on Saturday, Salahuddin said that if an upper house is formed and outlives the term of parliament, the caretaker government’s formation process could be built into it.
In that case, one proposal is for the vice-president to serve as the upper house speaker.
The alternative, he said, is for a speaker elected with the consent of both the opposition and the ruling party to head the caretaker government.
The advisors could then be appointed from the same house, again with the consent of both sides. Several people have given such opinions, and the option could be considered, he added.
“We’ll lay out all the proposals when we sit in the committee, and then when we submit the report. More proposals will come on that basis, and our bill could follow from there,” the minister said.
The meeting began at 11am in the cabinet room of the parliament and ran until 5:30pm. It was held with Supreme Court lawyers, law professors and eminent academics.
The legal experts offered opinions and suggestions on drafting a universally acceptable constitutional amendment, overall reform and strengthening constitutional institutions.
The July National Charter was adopted for state reform under the then interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.
The process of forming a Constitution Reform Council to implement the Charter, in line with the referendum verdict, hit a snag at the start.
After the Feb 12 election, BNP winners took oath only as MPs, while winners from the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance took oath for both roles.
The BNP government formed the Constitution amendment committee to implement the Charter while the opposition keeps up its street campaign demanding implementation in line with the referendum verdict.
The opposition has not sent representatives to the committee.
The committee has already met political parties and alliances, academics and teachers, eminent citizens, leaders of social and professional bodies, women leaders and July Uprising stakeholders.
Salahuddin said the latest meeting discussed the basic structure of the Constitution, as well as administrative and legislative matters and judicial review of constitutional amendments.
Views also came in on making judicial independence work, a law on judge appointments and setting up a Supreme Court Secretariat.
He said a proposal has been made to relax the limits Article 70 of the Constitution places on MPs voting freely.
The discussion covered the right of MPs to vote freely and file a “note of dissent” on matters other than constitutional amendments, money bills, confidence and no-confidence votes, and national security or wartime situations.
The meeting also discussed how to balance power between the president and the prime minister, as well as the structure and scope of constitutional and statutory institutions and how to let them work independently, the committee chair said.
Asked what proposals had come in on a Supreme Court Secretariat, he said: “We have a commitment on setting up a Supreme Court Secretariat. But we haven’t turned the previous government’s ordinance into law, because it had many errors and flaws. We have a commitment on that.”
Proposals have also come in to boost the president’s power in appointments to statutory bodies and commissions, with the president to appoint heads to at least six bodies, Salahuddin said.
Work on compiling the committee’s report will start in the next few days. Talks with the opposition parties, or collecting their views, are also in the pipeline, he added.