Abdul Latif Siddique: “AL’s central working committee does not have jurisdiction to cancel my membership.”

By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
The Bangladesh ruling Awami League (AL), headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has asked the election commission (EC) to annul the parliamentary membership of its lawmaker and former minister Abdul
Latif Siddique.
A letter signed by AL general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam reached the EC yesterday.
Earlier, the EC received a letter from Siddique, in which he requested it to let the parliament speaker take the call on scrapping of his parliament seat,
instead of deciding on it itself.
Siddique lost his telecoms ministry and membership in the ruling party after making remarks on the Haj in a New York programme.
The former AL leader, who was elected from Tangail, was in jail after he was charged with hurting religious sensitivities. He was freed on bail recently.
The EC is set to take steps to cancel his parliamentary membership in line with the constitution, as he was expelled by his party.
It sought the Awami League’s opinion on the matter.
Siddique, who lost his cabinet and AL membership for his Haj comments, has claimed his party made a mistake.
In a written response to the EC’s notice, he said the accusations of hurting religious sensitivities brought against him are ‘false’ and ‘baseless’.
“For the sake of discussion, even if I had said that, the AL’s central working committee does not have jurisdiction to cancel my membership.”
The letter to chief election commissioner (CEC) Rakib Uddin Ahmed said, “I gave the speech as a people’s representative. There is no scope to say I gave it as an AL member. The decision to throw me out was taken on a misinterpretation.”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina shunted him out from the cabinet in the face of demands from quarters, who were furious at his comments on the Haj. The party also scrapped his membership.
On July 5, eight months after his expulsion, AL’s letter notifying the parliament of its decision reached Speaker Shirin Sharmin Choudhury. The CEC also wrote to her asking about whether his seat would be vacated.