Sacked minister Abdul Latif Siddique questioned Awami League's "jurisdiction" of expelling him from the party and claimed AL made a mistake by taking such a decision.

In a written response to the Election Commission’s notice, the former AL presidium member said the allegation of demeaning the religious sentiment that were brought against him were ‘false’, ‘baseless’ and 'difficult to believe'.

"For the sake of discussion, even if I had made such remarks about religious sentiments, Awami League Central Working Committee does not have jurisdiction to cancel my membership," the letter read.

Former post and telecommunication minister Latif, who was sacked from the cabinet and the AL following his comments about Hajj, Tablighi Jamaat and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) at a programme in the USA on September 28 last year, today cleared his position replying to EC's notice issued on July 16 regarding his parliament membership.

On the other hand, the ruling party requested the EC to scrap Siddique's parliament membership, who is a lawmaker from Tangail-4 constituency, in accordance with the constitutional and Representation of People Order (RPO) provisions.