Women’s reserve seats in JS to remain for 25 more years

The Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday amended the constitution to keep undisrupted the provision of the 50 women’s reserve seats in the House for 25 more years, reports BSS.

The Sangsad unanimously passed the Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Bill, 2018 to ensure women participation and empowerment in the legislation while it was moved by Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Haq.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was in the chair as the House passed the bill after it was cleared by the Parliamentary standing committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry.

The parliamentary move came as the provision for the 50 women reserve seats in the parliament is supposed to expire on January 28, 2019.

“Unless the tenure of the 50 women seats is not be extended through this amendment, the provision of the women reserve seat will be abolished from the constitution,” the law minister said piloting the bill.

The bill ratified the provision for another 25 years keeping intact scopes for women to contest in general elections directly from any place and any constituency across the country.

The Parliamentary standing committee members — Lawmakers M Tajul Islam Chowdhury, MShamsul Haq Tuku, Taluder Mohammad Younus, Advocate Mohammad Ziaul Haq Mridha, Begum Safura Begum, and Begum Amatul Kibria Keya Chowdhury alongside the law minister — earlier scrutinized the bill as it was sent for its review by the House as it was tabled.

In line with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s directive the post independence government had kept a provision of 15 women reserve seat in the parliament for 10 years.

Later, the provision of the women reserve seats was extended thrice by increasing the number to 30 under the 10th Constitutional Amendment in 1990 and 45 under 14th amendment in 2004.

The number of reserve women seats stood at 50 under the 15th Constitutional Amendment in 2011.