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Constitutional Amendments, Bangladesh

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CONSTITUTION The fundamental law, written or unwritten, that establishes the character of a government by defining the basic principles to which a society must conform; by describing the organization of the government and regulation, distribution, and limitations on the functions of different government departments; and by prescribing the extent and manner of the exercise of its sovereign powers. A legislative charter by which a government or group derives its authority to act. The concept of a constitution dates to the city-states of ancient Greece. The philosopher Aristotle described a constitution as creating the frame upon which the government and laws of a society are built: A constitution may be defined as an organization of …show more content…

However, amendments during socialist one party and military rule in Bangladesh radically altered the secular and liberal democratic nature of the constitution. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGLADESH AMENDMENTS & CONSEQUENCES The original Constitution of Bangladesh introduced a parliamentary form of government with the President as its constitutional head. It provides a responsible executive, a non-sovereign legislature and an independent judiciary with appropriate separation of powers, and checks and balances among them. The supreme law of Bangladesh, the Constitution, confers only limited law making competence on Parliament. Parliament does not possess any intrinsic law-making power, which derives from the constitution. The parliament cannot make any law in contravention with the provisions of the constitution. The Constitution embodies the principle of ministerial responsibility, both individual and collective, to the parliament and ultimately to the people, the source of "all powers in the republic". Bangladesh started its journey with a parliamentary form of democracy, derailed afterwards from the fundamental aspiration of democratic governance by introducing one-party political system with an 'all powerful head of the state – the President'. There

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