After attending the hearing of the Election Commission on his parliamentary membership dispute, sacked minister Abdul Latif Siddique, who was also stripped of his membership of the ruling Awami League, said on Sunday morning that he will resign soon as member of parliament.
The commission, however, stayed its hearing that started at 11am at the EC’s Secretariat in the city for
two weeks. Latif joined the hearing as the Appellate Division did not stay the High Court’s decision of dismissing his writ petition filed challenging the jurisdiction of the EC to hold hearing. Emerging from the EC after the hearing, Latif Siddique said he himself will resign and will send his resignation letter to the Speaker of Parliament soon.
On August 9, the Election Commission sent a letter to Latif Siddique and AL general secretary asking them to be present at the hearing over the legitimacy dispute of Latif’s parliamentary membership after he was axed from the party’s primary membership.
Latif Siddique, a former Posts and Telecommunication Minister, filed the writ petition with the HC on August 16 challenging the EC’s notice for joining its hearing, but the High Court bench, comprising Justice Emdadul Haque and Justice Mohammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar, dismissed the petition on August 20.
Hours after the HC’s decision, Latif moved the Appellate Division against the decision.
Earlier on August 2, AL asked the commission for cancellation of parliamentary membership of Latif, elected from Tangail-4 constituency.
In reply to EC’s letter, the ruling party in its statement said Abdul Latif Siddique made ‘audacious remarks’ about Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (SM) and holy Hajj and Tablig Jamaat on September 28 last in New York, USA. His remarks hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims of Bangladesh and the global Muslim Ummah. This is why AL, at its working committee meeting on October 28, took the decision of axing his primary membership of the party.
The AL also said Latif Siddique was elected MP with AL’s nomination under Article 66 of the Constitution. As per the political party registration rule, the candidate is defined as either contestant nominated by political party or independent candidate. So, there is no scope for anyone to be independent candidate once he or she is nominated by political party before or after the election.
As he was expelled from the party, he is no one of Awami League at present. On this ground, he had lost all legal rights to remain an MP, the AL statement noted. “So, (under) the article 66 (4) of the Constitution, the clause 12(1) of the Representation of the People Order (RPO) and the section 178 of the rules of procedure of Parliament, we request to cancel his parliament membership,” the statement continued.
However, Latif in reply to EC’s letter on the same day claimed that the decision of AL is wrong and requested the commission not to cancel his membership dispute.
On July 7, the ruling AL informed the Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury that Abdul Latif Siddique was expelled from the party’s primary membership through a letter eight months after the party axed Latif’s primary membership.
Siddique was dropped from the Cabinet on October 12 last and axed from his party’s presidium post and primary membership on October 24 last amid waves of criticism following his derogatory remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat in the USA last year.
After hearing and determining the dispute, the commission will inform its decision to the Speaker within 120 days of the receipt of statement of the Speaker in line with the Members of Parliament (Determination of Dispute) Act 1980. As per the Constitution, the EC’s decision on the dispute shall be final.
