Show legality of Jamaat registration: HC to EC.........

The High Court on Tuesday ordered the Election Commission and Jamaat-e-Islami to show cause why the party's registration should not be declared illegal.

Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid were asked to respond within six weeks to the order.

The bench of HC justices MBM Khairul Haq and Mohammad Abdul Hye passed the order, on a public interest petition by 25 people including Syed Rezaul Haq, secretary general of Bangladesh Tarikat Foundation, Munshi Abdul Latif, secretary general of Zaker Party, and Maulana Ziaul Hasan, president of Sammilito Islami Jote. Barrister Tania Amir argued for the petitioners in the court.

The petitioners claim that Jamaat ideals are inconsistent with the country's Constitution, and the party cannot thereby be registered in line with the Representation of the People's Order.

The party also has offices abroad which is against the EC's electoral laws for registration, as is Jamaat-e-Islami's birth in India, the petitioners claim.

The petition further argue that the RPO stipulates that a party must aim for 33 percent female representatives by 2020.

But Jamaat does not include this in their party constitution, and women are not inducted into the higher party posts, say the petitioners.

People of other religions cannot become members of the party, which damages non-communal spirit; despite that Jamaat has been registered, says the petition.

For all these reasons, the party's registration should be annulled, it argues.