Move on to extend women MPs tenure

The government has moved to make the 17th amendment to the constitution to extend the tenure of women in reserved seats in parliament.

The 10-year tenure of reserved seat MP system is going to end on January 24, 2019.

The Daily Star obtained a copy of the cabinet agenda where the draft of the 17th amendment was at the top of the list. The cabinet meets today.

When asked about the agenda, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said he was not aware of the details of the draft. “I will read it tonight, and then I can talk about it,” he said over the phone.

Sources in the government said that if the government did not amend the constitution extending the tenure of the system, the next national parliament would have no women in reserved seats.

The BNP-led government had extended the tenure of the reserved seats to 10 years in the eighth parliament in 2004 and it became effective in the ninth parliament, which sat on January 25, 2009.

Now, parliament has 50 women in reserved seats.

As per the constitution, parliament shall consist of 300 members to be elected directly and 50 reserved seats for women to be allotted to parties based on their proportional representation in parliament.

The last amendment was brought to the constitution in 2014 abolishing the chief justice-led Supreme Judicial Council system which was introduced in 1978, and empowered the parliament to impeach judges for incapacity and misconduct.

On May 5, 2016, the High Court scrapped the 16th constitutional amendment that restored the parliament's authority. The HC declared that the amendment was illegal, unconstitutional and against the principles of the separation of state powers and the independence of the judiciary.

The government appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. The Supreme Court on July 3 last year upheld the High Court verdict.

A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha unanimously declared the amendment illegal, dismissing the government appeal.

The government on December 24 last year filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of the judgment.