Hasnat Abdullah alleges 'deception 18 times in seven months' over the July Charter

Hasnat Abdullah, chief organizer of the National Citizen Party (NCP) for the southern region and Member of Parliament for the Cumilla-4 constituency, has alleged that the BNP government is deceiving the people by breaking its promise to implement the July Charter. His claim is that, by failing to implement the charter's important reform proposals, the BNP has deceived the people 18 times in the last seven months.

He made this allegation on Sunday (October 18) at noon at an open discussion titled 'A Year of the Promises and Expectations of the July Charter: A Review,' organized by the AB Party at the Shafiqul Kabir Auditorium of the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) in Segunbagicha in the capital. Implementation progress was discussed at the event, one year after the July Charter was signed.

Hasnat Abdullah said the power the people had given through the referendum — for 300 Members of Parliament to reform the constitution for 180 days — was not used. According to him, although part of the results of the February 12 election was accepted, the result of the referendum was ignored. The Members of Parliament also did not take the oath of the Constitution Reform Council. As a result, he commented, the July Charter has effectively become a decorative matter.

He further said that although the BNP repeatedly promised to implement the July Charter word for word, no reflection of it can be seen in reality. He alleged that the government has not taken effective initiatives to implement the proposals that were in the charter on reforming the state's important institutions, ensuring accountability and preventing corruption.

The MP also raised questions about the initiative to amend the constitution. He said if the fundamental matters of the constitution are changed through amendment, it may face challenges in court in the future. He also reminded listeners that in the past, the initiative to move several High Court benches to divisional cities through the Eighth Amendment had faced a court challenge and been cancelled.

His question: what is the guarantee that the proposed amendment, too, will not face a challenge in court in the future? This is why their position was in favor of forming a separate reform council for constitutional reform. He believes the reform activities should have been completed using the power given by the people.

Hasnat Abdullah also raised the allegation that the promise to amend the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) law was not implemented. He said the political parties had pledged in the July Charter to abolish Section 33(ka) of the ACC Act. The interim government had issued an ordinance in 2025 with the aim of removing the obligation to take the government's prior permission to file corruption cases against government employees. But he alleged that the BNP government did not turn it into law after coming to power.

He also raised questions about the business activities of a family member of the ACC chairman. His allegation is that after appointments to important posts, family members of the persons concerned are building up various business activities, including consultancy businesses. He commented that such situations can create conflicts of interest and risks of corruption.

He also mentioned that proposal number 69 of the July Charter had spoken of forming an independent police commission. According to him, an effective system was supposed to be built to receive citizens' complaints against the police and provide redress. But the government has not been able to show progress in this matter.

Raising allegations of bribe transactions in police transfers and postings, he said there are allegations that huge amounts of money change hands even to obtain postings to positions such as Officer-in-Charge (OC) of a police station or Superintendent of Police (SP). He demanded that these allegations be investigated and measures taken.

Hasnat Abdullah said proposal number 67 of the July Charter had spoken of separating the accounts and audit department to ensure the independence and transparency of government audit activities. His allegation is that although the political parties had no objection on this matter, the government has not taken effective steps.

He also mentioned that proposal number 62 of the charter had spoken of amending the Right to Information Act. According to him, this initiative was taken so that citizens can easily obtain government information and information about irregularities and corruption in government procurement can be disclosed. He also alleged that by repealing the related ordinance, the government has moved away from the initiative to establish transparency, and he called for the people's aspirations to be reflected by implementing the charter's promises.