Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said the government aims to gradually improve the existing political culture in the country, starting with parliamentary practices.
“We are trying to gradually improve our existing political culture. But this cannot be implemented overnight; it will take time. We want to practice good democratic practices; we want to bring good political culture by eliminating past bad habits and through the creation and nurturing of good culture,” he said.
“We want to start the practice of good political culture from the national parliament itself,” the minister added.
Salahuddin was speaking as the chief guest at a dialogue titled “Human Rights Commission Ordinance 2025: Expectations from the New Parliament” organised by “Citizens Platform-Reform Watch” at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The dialogue was chaired by Citizens Platform Convener and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya. Participants included AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Md Fazlur Rahman, Rumeen Farhana, Ahmed Azam Khan, Rehman Sobhan, Subrata Chowdhury, Sara Hossain, and Khushi Kabir, among others.
The minister noted that severe human rights violations, particularly through the use of the state apparatus, were witnessed during the fascist regime. “As a political party and as a nation, we are committed to protecting human rights, especially the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution,” he stated.
He said human rights protection is part of the government’s commitment and election manifesto, including in the 31-point agenda. “In the manifesto, we have spoken about forming various commissions, including a human rights commission and a truth and healing commission,” he added.
Salahuddin stressed the need for a gradual approach to human rights development to eventually reduce violations to zero. “Achieving 100 percent human rights protection overnight is not possible. We want to improve Bangladesh’s human rights standards and indicators to the international level. But for that, we need time. We know who, how, and through what process can hinder its implementation. So some time is necessary,” he explained.
Regarding the Human Rights Commission Ordinance, he said there is broad agreement on most aspects, though some amendments may be necessary and will be presented as bills in parliament.
On the 133 ordinances issued during the interim government’s tenure, the home minister said most might be accepted verbatim, but several require discussion. Due to constitutional obligations, these ordinances must lapse, be passed, or be adopted with amendments within 30 days of the first parliamentary session, counting holidays. “Ordinances we cannot present in this session will automatically lapse, but we can bring them as bills in the next session,” he explained.
The minister confirmed that seven ordinances under the Home Ministry’s jurisdiction would be among those considered
