Jamaat's PR campaign a 'political deception', says Nahid Islam
He wrote that the demand for an Upper House based on proportional representation was originally conceived as a constitutional safeguard

National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam has described Jamaat-e-Islami's recent push for a Proportional Representation (PR) system in the upcoming election as a "calculated political deception."
In a post on his verified Facebook account today (19 October), Nahid said the "so-called PR movement" launched by Jamaat was "deliberately designed to derail the Consensus Commission's reform process and divert national dialogue" from core constitutional reforms.
He wrote that the demand for an Upper House based on proportional representation was originally conceived as a constitutional safeguard.
"We sought to build a movement around such foundational reforms and to establish the legal framework of the July Charter through broad-based national consensus," he stated.
Nahid alleged that Jamaat and its allies "hijacked this agenda, reduced it to a technical PR issue, and used it as a bargaining tool for narrow partisan interests."
He added, "Their motive was never reform; it was manipulation."
He further said Jamaat had never meaningfully participated in the reform discussions before or after the July Uprising, nor had it presented any constitutional vision or commitment to democratic principles.
"Their sudden endorsement of reform within the Consensus Commission was not an act of conviction but a tactical infiltration, a political sabotage disguised as reformism," Nahid wrote.
He concluded that the people of Bangladesh had recognised what he described as Jamaat's deception.
"They have awakened to the truth and will no longer be deceived by false reformists or manipulative actors… the sovereign people of this land will never again permit dishonest, opportunistic, and morally bankrupt forces to rule over them," he wrote.