DHAKA, Bangladesh, 19 Nov: Bangladesh\u2019s highest court on Sunday dismissed an appeal by the country\u2019s largest Islamist party seeking to overturn a 2013 ruling that barred it from participating in elections for violating the constitutional provision of secularism
\nBangladesh is set to hold its next national elections on Jan. 7.
\nA five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan handed out the ruling. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami\u2019s main lawyer did not appear before the court due to \u201cpersonal problems\u201d and his petition, filed previously, seeking to postpone the hearing for six weeks was also rejected.
\nThe High Court\u2019s decision 10 years ago canceled the party\u2019s registration with the Election Commission, thus stopping it from participating in elections or using party symbols. But it did not ban it from political particpation.
\nThe ruling, at the time, came amid calls to ban the party for opposing the country\u2019s 1971 independence war against Pakistan. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, after coming to power in 2009, sought to try Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami\u2019s top leaders for their role in acts of genocide and war crimes during the country\u2019s independence war. Some have been hanged or given life sentences since 2013.
\n\u201cThe verdict of the High Court has been upheld,\u201d Tania Amir, a lawyer who stood against the Jamaat-e-Islami party, said Sunday.
\n\u201cIf they (Jamaat-e-Islami) attempt any meetings, rallies or gatherings or identify their party as legal to any high commission, embassy, foreign agency or state, we are at liberty to bring a new charge of contempt of court against them and an injunction,\u201d she said.
\nBut Matiur Rahman Akanda, a lawyer for the party, said that the it would continue to be politically active.
\n\u201cThe court gave its opinion on whether the registration (with the Election Commission) will be upheld,\u201d he said, \u201cthere is no way to ban politics constitutionally.\u201d
\nThere have long been multiple calls in Bangladesh by secular forces and others to ban the Islamist party, but the government hasn\u2019t complied.
\nThe United States also considers it a moderate Islamist party.
\nDespite Sunday\u2019s decision by the High Court, it again remained unclear if Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami could continue its activities. Usually, the Ministry of Home Affairs is the entity that bans radical groups deemed as anti-state.
\nJamaat-e-Islami has been a key partner to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who has been the archrival of the current head of government, Hasina, for decades. The Islamist party and Zia shared power in 2001-2006 when the latter was the premier
\nIn January, Hasina will seek to return to power for a fourth consecutive term while Zia\u2019s party has threatened to boycott the polls. The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami says they also will boycott elections under Hasina.
\nThe memories of the 1971 war with Pakistan are still fresh in Bangladesh.
\nBangladeshi authorities say Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women, and forced some 10 million people to flee the country to neighboring India during the nine-month war in what was then known as East Pakistan, renamed Bangladesh after independence.
\nIndia aided then an exiled government led by the country\u2019s independence leader and founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina\u2019s father, to win the war against Pakistan. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA, Bangladesh, 19 Nov: Bangladesh\u2019s highest court on Sunday dismissed an appeal by the country\u2019s largest Islamist party seeking to overturn a 2013 ruling that barred it from participating in elections for violating the constitutional provision of secularism Bangladesh is set to hold its next national elections on Jan. 7. A five-member bench of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-228825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}