National Citizen Party Convener Nahid Islam has launched a sharp attack on Jamaat-e-Islami, accusing the Islamist party of using the Proportional Representation (PR) Movement as a political ploy to derail Bangladesh’s ongoing reform process.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Nahid described the movement, which Jamaat recently promoted as part of its political reform campaign, as “a calculated political deception.”
He claimed the initiative was “deliberately designed to derail the Consensus Commission’s reform process and divert national dialogue away from the real question — the restructuring of the state and constitution in light of the people’s uprising.”
‘Hijacking reform for partisan gain’
Nahid said the idea of establishing an Upper House based on proportional representation of votes had originally emerged as a constitutional safeguard during the early reform discussions following the July Uprising.
According to him, the proposal aimed to ensure fairer political representation through a broad-based consensus around the so-called July Charter — a document outlining post-uprising governance reforms.
“But Jamaat and its allies hijacked this agenda,” Nahid wrote. “They reduced it to a technical PR issue and used it as a bargaining tool for their narrow partisan interests. Their motive was never reform; it was manipulation.”
‘No constitutional vision’
The Citizen Party convener accused Jamaat of failing to engage meaningfully in any constitutional or reform dialogue, either before or after the uprising.
“Jamaat offered no substantive proposals, no constitutional vision, and no commitment to a democratic republic,” he said. “Their sudden endorsement of reform within the Consensus Commission was not an act of conviction but a tactical infiltration — a political sabotage disguised as reformism.”
‘The people have awakened’
In a concluding message directed at the public, Nahid wrote that the people of Bangladesh had “awakened to the truth” and would “no longer be deceived by false reformists or manipulative actors.”
“Neither the Almighty nor the sovereign people of this land will ever again permit dishonest, opportunistic, and morally bankrupt forces to rule over them,” his post added.
The comments have drawn widespread attention on social media, reflecting the growing tension between reformist and Islamist political blocs within Bangladesh’s shifting post-uprising landscape.
The Consensus Commission and July Charter
The Consensus Commission was formed in the aftermath of Bangladesh’s July Uprising, a mass movement that forced significant changes in the country’s political order. The commission brought together political, civil society, and academic figures to draft a roadmap for constitutional and institutional reform.
One of its key outcomes was the July Charter, a proposed framework for restructuring the state — including decentralisation, electoral reform, and the potential creation of an Upper House to represent citizens proportionally by vote share.
Supporters of the reform process have argued that it represents a rare opportunity for Bangladesh to build a more inclusive political system. However, critics say competing parties have attempted to co-opt the reform agenda to serve their own interests — a debate now reignited by Nahid Islam’s statement.