Jamaat used PR issue as tool for political bargaining: Nahid

National Citizens Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam said, 'the so-called ‘Proportional Representation (PR) Movement’, launched by Jamaat-e-Islami, was a calculated act of political deception. It was deliberately designed to obstruct the reform process of the Consensus Commission and to divert the national dialogue from the fundamental question of restructuring the State and Constitution in light of the people’s uprising.'

Nahid Islam further stated, “The core reform demand for establishing an upper house based on proportional representation was envisaged as a constitutional safeguard. We intended to build a movement around such fundamental reforms and to establish the legal framework of the July Charter through broad national unity. However, Jamaat and its allies hijacked this agenda, turned it into a technical PR issue, and used it as a tool for political bargaining to serve their narrow partisan interests. Their intention was never reform — it was manipulation.”

He added that Jamaat-e-Islami never participated in the reform discussions either before or after the July uprising. “They offered no fundamental proposal, constitutional vision, or commitment to a democratic republic. Their sudden endorsement of reform within the Consensus Commission was not an act of faith but a strategic infiltration — political sabotage disguised as reformism,” he remarked.

“Now, the people of Bangladesh clearly understand this deception. They have awakened to the truth and will no longer be misled by false reformists or manipulators. Neither the Almighty nor the sovereign people of this land will ever again allow dishonest, opportunistic, and morally bankrupt forces to rule over them,” Nahid asserted.