DHAKA, June 1: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to restore the rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami party registration, nearly eight months after the interim government lifted a ban on it.
The Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, directed the commission to restore the party’s registration.
The apex court also stated that it was up to the Election Commission (EC) to decide if Jamaat could contest polls using its traditional “scale” symbol.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court cancelled the registration of the Jamaat-e-Islami in 2013, ruling that the party is unfit to contest national elections.
The party appealed for a review of the 2013 court order banning it after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5, 2024.
The verdict boosted Jamaat further as it came a week after one of its top leaders and a death row convict, ATM Azharul Islam, was freed by the same apex court.
Islam had been facing charges of committing crimes against humanity by siding with Pakistani troops during the Liberation War.
In the absence of the Awami League, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, has emerged as the main actor in the country’s political arena.
In 2009, Bangladesh initiated a legal process to try collaborators of Pakistani forces during the Liberation War on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD).
The tribunal is now set to try senior Awami League leaders and government officials on identical charges for its crackdown on last year’s violent anti-government protests. (PTI)
