Bangladesh's experiments with parliamentary democracy

Asian Survey

Volumn 37, Issue 6, 1997, Pages 575-588

  Khan, Zillur R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0344894378     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.1997.37.6.01p0256x     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. National Assembly of Pakistan, Gazette, July 1968.
2. Zillur R. Khan, The Third World Charismat: Sheikh Mujib and the Struggle for Freedom (Dhaka: University Press, Ltd., 1996), pp. 94-100.
3. Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh, Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary, Part 1, December 14, 1972).
4. Ibid., Article 48, Section 3.
5. After the three major parties surrendered 15 multiple constituency seats, AL needed 143 of the remaining 285 parliamentary seats to capture power. With the support of A. S. M. A. Rab (JSD), AL secured the needed majority, averting a possible constitutional deadlock. In order to strengthen its parliamentary position, AL formed a coalition with the Jatiya Party, which had won 27 seats (after surrendering 5 multiples).
6. The issue of implementation of Article 77 has been periodically raised by A. S. M. A. Rab, leader of the JSD (Rab) and a member of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's "consensus" cabinet. In an interview with the author on January 25, 1997, Rab indicated that he was going to pursue the issue of implementing the constitutional provision for the office of ombudsman.
7. Sheikh Hasina differentiates her AL government as consensus government because it is supposedly based on a multiparty consensus on national goals. Hers is not a coalition government, she contends, because the AL commands an absolute majority in the Seventh Parliament. As a symbol of a consensus government, she has included in her cabinet two members from other parties. In an interview with this author on January 27, 1997, in Dhaka, Hasina expressed her satisfaction with her cabinet's role in her consensus-building efforts on such issues as the independence of the judiciary, water sharing agreement with India, administrative decentralization, and parliamentary reform, among others.
8. Based on an interview with Nicholas Langton, representative of the Asia Foundation, in Bangladesh, January 12, 1995.
9. In an interview with the author on January 20, 1988, Mushtaque Ahmad categorically denied any part in the planning of the coup.