Commission to decide on caretaker govt chief as no consensus reached: Ali Riaz

With no full agreement reached after five consecutive proposals, the National Consensus Commission has announced it will now decide on the appointment of the chief adviser to the caretaker government.

Commission Vice President Professor Ali Riaz made the announcement during a press briefing after the 21st day of discussions with political parties at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka this evening (29 July).

"We have been discussing the caretaker government structure over the past several days. Based on those discussions, we presented a revised and consolidated proposal today, which includes a five-member selection committee," he said.

Ali Riaz noted that discussions had considered expanding the committee to include a former judge and a senior Appellate Division judge. "However, full consensus could not be achieved on this or other key points."

He said, "As a last resort, we are suggesting a return to the original format of the 13th Amendment, which excludes the president from the final decision-making role." 

He added that there is currently no consensus on the rank choice issue.

The BNP has objected to the inclusion of judges in the rank-choice mechanism and may submit a formal note of dissent, he said.

"Three-fourths of the participating parties have supported the commission's latest proposal. We hope others will reconsider their position."

Addressing the issue of appointments to constitutional bodies, Ali Riaz said no consensus was reached on the positions of auditor general and comptroller. "However, all parties — except BNP — agreed on strengthening the law governing the appointment of the Ombudsman."

He also noted that the commission will share with political parties the list of issues that reached consensus during the first phase of discussions. 

"We remain hopeful that a full version of the July Charter will be finalised by 31 July," he said.

Referring to progress in today's discussions on women's representation in parliament, Professor Ali Riaz said, "Almost all political parties agree on increasing the number of reserved seats for women in the parliament to 100. While there have been differences over the method of selecting these seats, there is agreement that the existing 50 seats will remain unchanged.

"However, we have largely reached a consensus on gradually increasing the number of women's seats in phases."

He expressed hope that a written proposal from the commission tomorrow would gain broad acceptance.