Government System of Bangladesh

Introduction

Bangladesh is one of the World’s most densely populated countries, with its people crammed into a delta of rivers that empties into the Bay of Bengal. Formerly East Pakistan, Bangladesh came into being only in 1971, when the two parts of Pakistan split after a bitter war which took almost 3 million lives. It is the 7th?most populous country among the most densely populated countries in the world. Bangladesh followed in turn the presidential and the parliamentary models of executive. The Government system in Bangladesh in consists with its Parliament, constitution, judiciary, executive branch and legislative branch.

Government System of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy, with an elected parliament called the Jatiyo Sangshad. The Government is elected by anonymous votes by citizens who are 18 or more of age. The Government is headed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister leads the Members of the Parliament as well as all the Ministers of the Government. The Constitution is the highest law of Bangladesh.

Parliament

The Parliament of Bangladesh is a unicameral legislature consisting of 300 members. They are directly elected from an equal number of territorial constituencies, which is one from each constituency, on the basis of adult franchise. Earlier there used to be 30 seats reserved for women who were elected by the directly elected Members. This provision in the Constitution for the reservation of seats for women was a transitory one. The 7th Parliament was the last Parliament to have this reservation. With the exception of the first Parliament, which had 15 reserved seats for women, and the fourth Parliament, which had no such reservation, all previous Parliaments (before 8th Parliament) of Bangladesh had included the 30 reserved seats. In the 8th Parliament the Constitution Act, 2004 was passed by the Parliament on May 2004?by which the following provision was inserted in the constitution of Bangladesh.

Art. 65(3) “Until the dissolution of Parliament occurring next after the expiration of the period of ten years beginning from the date of the first meeting of the Parliament next after the Parliament in existence at the time of the commencement of the Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act. 2004, there shall be reserved forty five seats exclusively for women members and they will be elected by the aforesaid members in accordance with law on the basis of procedure of proportional representation in the Parliament through single transferable vote:”.

The Constitution of Bangladesh in its two texts, Bengali and English, gives the unicameral legislature the name of ‘Jatiyo Shangshad’ in Bengali and ‘House of the Nation’ in English. However, the term ‘House of the Nation’ is rarely used. Rather the one-word nomenclature, ‘Parliament’, has gained currency, probably because the term ‘House of the Nation’ is used only once in the Constitution. Many do not know that the Constitution contemplates Parliament to be known in English as ‘House of the Nation’.

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Constitution

The Constitution of Bangladesh has formed the basis for the nation’s political organization since it was adopted on November 4, 1972. Many abrupt political changes have caused suspension of the Constitution and have led to amendments in almost every section, including the total revision of some major provisions. It is notable, however, that every regime that came to power since 1972 has couched major administrative changes in terms of the Constitution and has attempted to legitimize changes by legally amending this basic document.

According to the Constitution, the state has a positive role to play in reorganizing society in order to create a free and equal citizenry and provide for the welfare of all. The government is required to ensure food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education, work, and social security for the people. The government must also build socialism by implementing programs to “remove social and economic inequality” and “ensure the equitable distribution of wealth among citizens.” These far-reaching goals represented the viewpoints of many members of the 1972 Constituent Assembly and the early government, who were deeply influenced by socialist ideology. Another sector of public opinion, however, has always viewed private property and private enterprise as the heart of social and economic development. This viewpoint is also part of the constitutional principles of state policy, which equally recognize state, cooperative, and private forms of ownership. The Constitution thus mandates a high degree of state involvement in the establishment of socialism, although it explicitly preserves a private property system. In practice, the Constitution has supported a wide range of government policies, ranging from those of the nationalized, interventionist state of Mujib’s time to the increasing deregulation and reliance on market forces under former presidents.

The framers of the Constitution, after emerging from a period of intense repression under Pakistan, took great pains to outline the fundamental rights of citizens even before describing the government’s structure. According to the section on fundamental rights, all men and women are equal before the law, without discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. The Constitution also guarantees the right to assemble, hold public meetings, and form unions, Freedom of speech and of the press are ensured. Persons who have been arrested must be informed of the charges made against them, and they must be brought before a magistrate within twenty-four hours. The Constitution, however, adds that these guarantees are subject to “any reasonable restrictions imposed by law,” leaving open the possibility of an administrative decision to revoke fundamental rights. Furthermore, there is a provision for “preventive detention” of up to six months. Those being held under preventive detention do not have the right to know the charges made against them, nor to appear before a magistrate, and a legal advisory board may extend this form of detention after seeing the detainee. The Constitution does not define the circumstances or the level of authority necessary for the revocation of constitutional guarantees or for the enforcement of preventive detention. During the many occasions of civil disorder or public protest that have marked Bangladeshi political life, the incumbent administration has often found it useful to suspend rights or jail opponents without trial in accordance with the Constitution.

The Constitution is patterned closely on the British and United States models inasmuch as it includes provisions for independent legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. When it first came into effect, the Constitution established a British style executive, with a prime minister appointed from a parliamentary majority as the effective authority under a titular president. In 1975, implementation of “Mujibism”?(named for Mujib), mandating a single national party and giving the president effective authority, subject to the advice of a prime minister. The later governments preserved the powers of the presidency and strengthened the office of the chief executive through amendments and their personal control of the highest office in the land. Because of this concentration of power in individual leaders, the Bangladeshi Constitution gives much greater authority to the executive branch than does the United States Constitution. In fact, the legislature and the courts have few constitutional avenues for checking presidential power, while the executive has many tools for dominating the other branches of the government.

Executive branch

Bangladesh followed in turn the Presidential and the parliamentary models of executive. The legal basis of the Bangladesh provisional government, established on 10 April 1972, was provided by the proclamation of independence which was to take effect from 26 March 1971.

The constitution, established under this proclamation, created an all-powerful Presidential executive. Both executive and legislative powers, including the power to grant pardon, were vested in the President. He had the power to appoint a prime minister and other ministers, if he considered it necessary to do so. The power to summon and dissolve the assembly, as well as that of levying taxes and making expenditures, was exclusively vested in him. Furthermore, the President was entitled to do whatever was felt necessary for the sake of the people of Bangladesh. The proclamation created an all powerful Presidential executive in the context of the extraordinary circumstances prevailing during and after the war of liberation.

The parliamentary system of government in Bangladesh started soon after the return of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Pakistan on 10 January 1972. Using his legislative power under the Proclamation of Independence, he changed the basic structure of the provisional government and adopted a parliamentary form of government by a Presidential order called the Provisional Constitution of Bangladesh Order, 1972. The Provisional Constitution created by the decree had all the features of the British Westminster type of government with a council of ministers headed by a Prime Minister to aid and advice, and a ceremonial head of the state, namely the President.

Drastic transformation in the nature and type of the executive took place in Bangladesh through the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. It relegated the parliamentary democracy to a constitutional one-party dictatorship in which all powers were concentrated in the presidency, thus virtually abolishing the two parts of the executive. A one-party presidential form of government was introduced in which direct election was provided for the election of a President. The President, with tenure of five years, was made independent of the legislature.

The executive under President, who came to power after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975, once again was modified through the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. As the Chief Martial Law Administrator of the country from the last half of 1976 until the parliamentary election of 1979, through a number of Presidential orders, brought a number of changes in the political order like the revival of the multi-party system etc. The most important step, however, was the Second Proclamation Order No. 4 issued, on 18 December 1978 and known as the Fifteenth Amendment Order, which introduced constitutional reforms putting a formal end to the political order of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The executive authority was still vested in the President who was directly elected by the people for a period of five years, albeit without a limit to the number of terms in office. He was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, chief executive and chief legislative initiator through his power to address the Jatiya Sangsad and to dissolve it.

The executive that emerged in Bangladesh as a result of the acceptance of the Twelfth Amendment is, once again, a parliamentary executive. It has retained all the features of a parliamentary system, which had been there under the 1972 Constitution. However, constitutional provisions have been to Article 70 in order to further restrict the independence of the members of the Jatiya Sangsad. This and the lack of democratization within the major political parties make the Prime Minister’s position virtually unchallengeable. Further, the mode of election of the President has been made in such a way that unless a person is nominated and approved by the Prime Minister he or she cannot be elected, thus making the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister not one of equals. It seems that the President is almost subordinate to the Prime Minister. As such the executive in Bangladesh, at present, is overriding Prime Ministerial.

Judiciary

The judicial system, modeled after the British system, is similar to that of neighboring countries. Besides the 1972 constitution, the fundamental law of the land, there are codes of civil and criminal laws. The civil law incorporates certain Islamic and Hindu religious principles relating to marriage, inheritance, and other social matters.

The judicial system consists of a Low Court and a Supreme Court, both of which hear civil and criminal cases. The Lower Court consists of administrative courts (magistrate courts) and session judges. The Supreme Court also has two divisions, a High Court which hears original cases and reviews decisions of the Low Court, and an Appellate Court which hears appeals from the High Court. The upper level courts have exercised independent judgment, recently ruling against the government on a number of occasions in criminal, civil and even political trials. The trials are public. There is a right to counsel and right to appeal. There is also a system of bail. An overwhelming backlog of cases remains the major problem of the court system.

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Legislative branch & Law making Procedure

The legislative branch of the government is a unicameral Parliament, or Jatiyo Sangsad (House of the People), which makes the laws for the nation. Members of Parliament, who must be at least twenty-five years old, are directly elected from territorial constituencies. The Bangladeshi and British parliaments have accommodated political parties in a similar manner. After elections, a single political party or a coalition of parties must form a government– that is; they must form a block of votes within Parliament that guarantees the passage of bills they may introduce. Once a parliamentary majority is formed, the president chooses the majority leader as prime minister and appoints other members of the majority as cabinet ministers.

Parliament debates and votes on legislative bills. Decisions are decided by a majority vote of the 300 members, with the presiding officer abstaining from voting except to break a tie. A quorum is sixty members. If Parliament passes a non- money bill, it goes to the president; if he disapproves of the bill, he may return it to Parliament within fifteen days for renewed debate. If Parliament again passes the bill, it becomes law. If the president does not return a bill to Parliament within fifteen days, it automatically becomes law. All money bills require a presidential recommendation before they can be introduced for debate in Parliament. Parliament has the ability to reject the national budget or to delay implementation. It is therefore in the best interests of the executive as well as the entire nation that budgets submitted to Parliament should be designed to please the majority of its members. The legislature is thus a potentially powerful force for enacting laws over the objections of the president or for blocking presidential financial initiatives. In practice, however, because most members of Parliament have been affiliated with the prime minister’s party, the legislature has typically served the interests of the prime minister.

?Conclusion

Although it is always critics about all the government of Bangladesh that governments pass most of the bill to law which going to serve their purpose. But the member of the parliaments is elected by the votes of all general members who are eligible for the votes. So government always get rid of the blame that they just try to make sure general peoples wish on the name of their own win.