People will provide a fitting response if any attempt is made to seek legal intervention to obstruct the implementation of the referendum verdict, said National Citizen Party (NCP) Member Secretary Akhtar Hossain.
He made the remark while speaking at a discussion organised by the Referendum Implementation Citizen Forum at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka on Sunday.
“The sovereign will of the people, expressed through an uprising, is the highest law and cannot be subordinated to the courts,” he said.
The NCP leader said Paragraph 8 of the July Implementation Order requires Members of Parliament to take an oath as members of the Constitution Reform Council immediately after being sworn in as lawmakers.
He argued that the language and legal character of the order clearly made the requirement mandatory, adding that Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmakers violated the provision on the very day they took their parliamentary oaths.
He also said most political parties initially pledged support for the July Charter and state reforms within the Consensus Commission.
However, the BNP later stepped back from the commitment despite promising full implementation during the signing ceremony of the July Charter, he said.
Instead, the party launched a “No vote” campaign during the referendum, he added.
Akhtar Hossain said the referendum witnessed massive public participation, particularly in rural areas where voters strongly supported the process and often referred to it simply as the “Yes vote”.
He warned the BNP against seeking judicial intervention to block the referendum results, saying the public knows how to resist such moves.
Questioning the legitimacy of BNP lawmakers remaining in parliament after ignoring public expectations and allegedly violating the order, he said he expected them to take the oath as members of the Constitution Reform Council when the parliamentary session begins on Wednesday.
He added that the NCP will continue its struggle both inside and outside parliament to ensure the implementation of the July Charter and prevent the country from returning to its previous state structure.
