Jamaat Leaders Renew Commitment to July Spirit and Reform Agenda

Bangla Press Desk:  Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Dr Shafiqur Rahman said on Thursday that the July uprising was not fought merely to replace one government with another, but to fundamentally reform the country’s system of governance.

Calling on the government to pursue constitutional reforms in keeping with the spirit of the July movement, he warned that any administration which ignored reform and justice for the victims would risk repeating the mistakes of the previous regime.

Speaking at a meeting with the families of those killed and injured during the July 2024 uprising at the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh, in Dhaka, Shafiqur said Jamaat-e-Islami had remained steadfast in its support for the movement and its ideals from the outset.

“The spirit of July was to build a Bangladesh free from discrimination and founded on justice through reform of the state structure,” he said.

He claimed that Jamaat had firmly rejected every proposal for compromise that sought to deviate from the ideals of the uprising.

“We have consistently advocated reform and will continue to do so. We will not retreat even an inch from this demand,” he said.

Referring to the Constitution Reform Council, Shafiqur said there was still time for the government to rectify what he described as its mistake in proceeding with the council’s swearing-in while disregarding the referendum verdict.

“Anyone can make a mistake. Individuals, political parties and governments are all capable of error. The government should correct its mistake by respecting the referendum verdict and revisiting the swearing-in of the Constitution Reform Council,” he said.

Shafiqur also alleged that, in the post-uprising period, politics was increasingly being injected into state institutions. He claimed the ruling party had appointed its own leaders to state and constitutional bodies with the aim of turning them into partisan institutions.

Warning against repeating the practices of the previous administration, he said the ruling quarters would face the same fate as the ousted Awami League government if they followed what he described as the path of the “fascist regime”.

Jamaat Secretary General and former MP Mia Golam Parwar, along with several July fighters, also addressed the programme.