BNP has announced the new central committee of 'its student wing' Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) and party chief Khaleda Zia approved five office bearers in violation of political parties' registration laws.

None of the five office bearers of the new committee including the president and secretary is eligible to lead JCD as per registration laws since they are not regular students, say legal experts. According to the provisions of the registration laws stipulated in the Representation and the People's Order (RPO), a registered party cannot have any front or affiliated students' organisation.

However, students are allowed to form an organisation to run their activities independently. Like 38 other political parties, BNP also promised officially to the Election Commission (EC) to obey the laws when it applied for registration ahead of the ninth national polls last year.

The party also brought changes to its constitution and submitted it to EC in line with the registration laws to contest the parliamentary elections. Like other political parties, BNP also formally pledged to submit its ratified constitution to EC by July 25. But the party on July 1 announced the 101-member new central committee of JCD and Khaleda Zia, who is still its organising leader, approved the five office bearers.

The move however triggered protests among leaders, workers and supporters of JCD, which is still acting as a front organisation of BNP. Talking to The Daily Star on Sunday, eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik said BNP has clearly violated the registration laws by announcing JCD central committee and approving the five office bearers.

"Besides, those who were made leaders of the committee are not students at all. None but students have the right to do student politics in an organised way," Malik said referring to newspaper reports. Contacted by The Daily Star yesterday, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain however said the formation of the committee did not violate RPO provisions.

He said the new committee has been formed as per BNP's present constitution that recognises JCD as its "student front". "We have yet to change our constitution as per the provisions of the RPO. After changing the constitution, the JCD committee will be formed as per the changed constitution," Mosharraf added.

Officials at the EC Secretariat however said BNP in its provisional constitution de-links JCD as its front organisation and made provision for allowing JCD to run its activities as per its own constitution.

The BNP also officially pledged that it would ratify the provisional constitution and submit it to EC in six months since the inaugural sitting of the ninth parliament, which began on January 25. The officials said one might challenge legality of JCD's new committee, particularly appointment of the five office bearers, who are not regular students.

When his attention was drawn to the issue, Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said yesterday the electoral reforms were done before the ninth parliamentary election to encourage democratic practice within the parties and to de-link front organisations from the parties. "I don't want to make further comments on the issue," Sohul, who is also acting as the chief election commissioner (CEC) in absence of CEC ATM Shamsul Huda, told The Daily Star.

Interestingly, EC has lost authority to take action if a political party forms any front or affiliated organisation comprising students and teachers or labourers of any financial institutions as the Awami League government passed a bill in February in parliament curtailing its authority.

The ordinance promulgated by the past caretaker government bringing reforms in the electoral laws empowered EC to cancel registration of a political party if it forms front or affiliated organisation comprising teachers, students and labourers. But the bill passed in parliament ratifying the ordinance dropped the provision that empowered EC to take action.

At the end of February EC decided to ask the government to reinstate the provision empowering the commission to take action in case of violation of registration provisions. But EC did not send the proposals to the government till yesterday.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JCD CHIEF

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia approved five office bearers of the central committee of JCD, making Sultan Salauddin Tuku its chief. Tuku, who was vice-president of JCD twice, obtained graduation from marketing department of Dhaka University in 1992, says the affidavit he submitted as a parliamentary candidate to Tangail-2 constituency for the December 29 general elections on BNP nomination.

As per the affidavit, Tuku is a businessman and his annual income is around Tk 4.57 lakh and expenditure around Tk 1.5 lakh. He is also a taxpayer and his TIN number is 110-105-6411-contra-7. In the parliamentary election, Tuku, also the younger brother of former BNP deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu, the prime accused in August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally case, was defeated to AL candidate Khandakar Asaduzzaman.

-Daily Star