Current Constitutional Governance Crisis in Bangladesh: A Legal Postmortem

M Rafiqul Islam 7 February 2026

M Rafiqul Islam, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney (Keynote address to a seminar held on 2 February 2026 at the NSW Parliament House, Sydney) Honourable Chair, distinguished guests, learned commentators, and dear audience, let me begin by providing a brief context for this talk. Bangladesh commenced its journey of good governance under a popular and accountable democratic Constitution in 1972. Since 1975, it has been on a roller-coaster ride from parliamentary, presidential, martial law, military dominated turncoat democracy, a return to parliamentary government, and, most recently, an unelected interim government.

7 February 2026

M Rafiqul Islam, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney (Keynote address to a seminar held on 2 February 2026 at the NSW Parliament House, Sydney) Honourable Chair, distinguished guests, learned commentators, and dear audience, let me begin by providing a brief context for this talk. Bangladesh commenced its journey of good governance under a popular and accountable democratic Constitution in 1972. Since 1975, it has been on a roller-coaster ride from parliamentary, presidential, martial law, military dominated turncoat democracy, a return to parliamentary government, and, most recently, an unelected interim government. The current interim government is the product of the political uprising in July 2024 which ousted the Sheikh Hasina administration that had been in power since 2008. Against this backdrop, this paper offers an academic lawyer’s opinion and legal analysis based strictly on the hard-core provisions of the Constitution of Bangladesh still in force without any inference and extrapolation. I will endeavour to present this analysis simply, without

diluting its legal rigor. Legal Status of the Interim Government Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina government, the Prime Minister departed for India. It was initially unclear whether she intented to led a government in exile, as has occurred in other historical contexts, such as the Sihanouk government of Cambodia, which went to China after he was overthrown and ran a government in exile parallel to the Pol Pot regime. No such attempt was made. Instead, a public declaration announced that Sheikh Hasina had resigned, although her resignation letter has never been disclosed despite public demands and a writ petition filed in the High Court Division. Subsequently, the President publicly admitted that he had never received any resignation letter. This situation created a governance vacuum. To address it, the President invoked Article 106 of the Constitution and sought an advisory opinion from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (AD). The Article 106 empowers the President to seek such advice…

Analysis, Awami League, Bangladesh, China, Constitution, Current Affairs, Democracy, Dr Yunus, Islamism, Journalism, Liberation War, Myanmar, Politics, Review

Sheikh Hasina: The Power of Leadership

Jahanara Nuri 28 September 2025

In the early nineties, Shahbagh dawned pale and mysterious. It rose like an ancient city from rice-washed waters. Streets glistened as if inked with dust from Nawabi bakharkhani and ashes. Stalls at crossings exhaled jasmine, tuberose, marigold. Restaurants thickened the air with parata, paya, dim vaja, and dal vuna. Rickshaws and cars rattled past like iron insects. From the crossing, standing before PG Hospital toward TSC, you saw the Northern Road slip toward Bangla Academy and the Science Building. It carried students, teachers, people — and the hushed footsteps of history itself. By nine o’clock, rickshaws jostled for space. The campus pulsed with the life of a nation anchored at Shahbagh. Dhaka University and Shahbagh bore history’s cruelty. They witnessed resistance, oppression, survival, and pride. Shahbagh was never just a marketplace for flowers, food, books, and medicine. It was also an altar of ideas and creative dreams. Writers and thinkers debated over tea, killing kings and generals with words. The tar on the streets around TSC drank blood every decade — not of clerics’, but

of young dreamers’. Socialist Student Union members, Student League, Secular bloggers, DU professors bled on its pavements, etching a red chapter in the history the city could not wash away. Assassins silenced voices one by one. When they struck my teacher, Dr. Humayun Azad, they carved permanent hatred into his face. He survived but lived only half in this world, until death claimed him in a German twilight, six months later. DU Student Union's 2025 election became a theatre. Rigged stages allowed supporters of Avijit Roy’s killers to take their seats. Since July 2024, 761 armed zealots, along with Jamaat-Shibir and the Islamic Alliance, have been roaming freely in the country, plotting a Caliphate on soil that had chosen freedom a hundred years earlier. A sharp question remains: why did no cleric fall to these assassins? Silence answers. It shows whose hands guided the knives and who threw the bombs and grenades. Many forces contended for Bangladesh’s soul, but none gnawed like the venom of religious politics led by Moudusit, Salafist Jamat E Islam, Islamic…

Constitution, Opinion

Thoughts on the Proposed Reforms to the Constitution of Bangladesh, our ‘Salus populi suprema lex esto’

Audity Falguni 26 March 2025

Be it Roman jurist Cicero, Greek philosopher Aristotle or comparatively modern ‘Social Contract’ writers like Hobbes, Locke or Jean Jacques Rosseau, ‘constitution’ has been acknowledged as the ‘supreme book ‘of a state across the civilizations. Bengalis, both a tolerant and rebel nation, have traversed the crude epochs of history over the millennium. Their struggle for justice and dignity touched its momentum with the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state in 1971 and adoption of a liberal, democratic and egalitarian constitution. But how many times the military dictators and religious bigots have tried to destroy the fundamental tenets of our constitution? Are we facing that recurrent, dark trial even today?

26 March 2025

In a manner that resonates with the Latin maxim 'Salus populi suprema lex esto' (The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law), attributed to the renowned Roman jurist Cicero in De Legibus (Book III, Part III, Section VIII), the Constitution of Bangladesh similarly asserts in its Preamble. : Further pledging that it shall be a fundamental aim of the State to realize through the democratic process a socialist society, free from exploitation a society in which the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political, economic, and social, will be secured for all citizens.’ Adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1972, and coming into effect on December 16 of the same year, our Constitution is the culmination of our blood-stained, nine-month-long Liberation War in 1971. It consists of 153 articles, 11 parts, and 4 schedules. Our Constitution establishes Bangladesh as a ‘Unitary Parliamentary Democracy’ and enshrines the four fundamental principles of

nationalism, socialism, democracy, and secularism. The current ‘Constitution Reform Commission,’ chaired by Bangladeshi American political scientist and author Dr. Ali Riaz, a Professor at Illinois State University and a US citizen, has recently put forth seven significant proposals for changes to the Constitution of Bangladesh. These proposed reforms have sparked considerable debate across various segments of society. Even the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which might have been expected to benefit the most from the reforms scheduled for July 2024, as well as the satirical online magazine earki—another strong advocate for the July 2024 initiative—have voiced their dissent regarding these proposed constitutional changes. Evolution of Constitution Encyclopedia Britannica defines ‘constitution’ as ‘the body of doctrines and practices that form the fundamental organizing principle of a political state.’ Etymologically, the term ‘constitution’ is derived from the Latin word) constitutio, used for regulations and orders, such as the imperial enactments (constitutiones principis: edicta, mandata, decreta, rescripta, etc.). Later, the term was vastly used in Canon law for any pertinent determination, particularly a…