Dhaka/Colombo, April 5. Last year, the interim government of Bangladesh, led by Muhammad Yunus, banned all activities of the Bangladesh Awami League and its related organizations through the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2025. Now, the new government, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), reportedly plans to make this ban permanent.
This situation raises serious concerns, including the potential for the Bangladesh Awami League, the country's founding political party, to be effectively suppressed. Anwar A. Khan, a political analyst based in Dhaka, wrote in the Sri Lanka Guardian that this situation could lead to a constitutional crisis, more than just a political rivalry.
The Constitution of Bangladesh was created after the 1971 Liberation War.
Khan, in his article for the Sri Lanka Guardian, states that the Bangladeshi Constitution establishes a democratic order based on pluralism, participation, and the rule of law.
He points out that Article 37 of the Constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly, and Article 38 guarantees the right to form associations or unions. According to him, this has long been interpreted to include the formation and operation of political parties.
According to Khan, imposing penalties on a major political party, such as imprisonment for four to 14 years, is not regulation; it is repression, a direct violation of these constitutional guarantees.
Furthermore, Article 11 of the country's Constitution guarantees fundamental human rights and freedoms and refers to the Bangladesh Republic as a "democracy."
Khan, in the Sri Lanka Guardian, asks whether a democracy can remain legitimate if one of its key political actors is legally suppressed.
He asks, "Can the will of the people truly be expressed if their choices are preemptively curtailed by law?"
He emphasizes that the answer is clear, and that it cannot be denied.
Anwar A. Khan stated that the BNP-led Bangladeshi government's proposal to permanently enact the anti-terrorism ordinance, with harsh penalties, "represents a dangerous departure from democratic norms."
He says that this goes beyond temporary administrative control, into the realm of institutionalized exclusion.
Expressing his disappointment, Khan remarked, "This is not governance; it is the codification of political vengeance."
The political analyst reminded that leaders of the BNP had publicly stated their opposition to banning political parties during the election campaign. They had insisted that such decisions belong to the people of the sovereign nation. He called this "the collective will of the citizenry."
However, Khan believes that the BNP's victory may have led to the abandonment of this principled stance in favor of authoritarianism.
He says that such double standards erode public trust and undermine the foundation of democratic politics.
Khan also cautions that democracies do not collapse overnight.
He points out that they are gradually eroded – first by suppressing dissent, then by criminalizing the opposition, and eventually by normalizing exclusion.
The political analyst, in the Sri Lanka Guardian, noted that an attempt has been made to marginalize the Bangladesh Awami League "under the guise of legal reform, which risks accelerating this dangerous trajectory."
As a result, Khan warns of profound implications, including deepening political polarization and restricting democratic space.
He fears that the streets of Bangladesh may once again become sites of conflict rather than peaceful expression.
"A culture of suppression, once entrenched, rarely remains confined to a single target. Today, one party may be outlawed; tomorrow, the precedent may ensnare others. This is the inexorable logic of repressive governance," he wrote in the Sri Lanka Guardian.
Having said that, Khan is also optimistic. He believes that history also teaches resilience.
He emphasizes that since the formation of the nation, the Bangladesh Awami League has stood against storms far greater than legislative hostility.
"Its roots are intertwined with the very birth of the nation, its identity inseparable from the ideals of liberation, sovereignty, and popular mandate. Time and again, it has returned – not by decree, but by indomitable strength; an unyielding force of the people's will," Anwar A. Khan wrote in the Sri Lanka Guardian.
He makes it clear that if democracy is to continue in Bangladesh, it must be defended not by suppressing opponents, but by engaging public opinion.
He emphasizes that participation and contestation are the destined paths forward, not prohibition or coercion.
Khan underlines that the sovereignty of a Republic resides in the people, who are the ultimate custodians of a nation's destiny.
Reaffirming that the citizens of the sovereign Republic have the right to decide the fate of political parties, Khan says that forgetting this virtue is "a constitutional betrayal" and not merely a "political error."
