Dhaka: A High Court (HC) bench today issued a rule asking the authorities concerned why a new parliamentary constituency, ‘Faridpur-5’, should not be created by separating Bhanga upazila from the current Faridpur-4 constituency, which currently includes Bhanga, Char Bhadrasan, and Sadarpur upazilas.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the order was passed by a bench comprising Justice Md Mujibur Rahman Miah and Justice Biswajit Debnath after hearing the writ. The court has instructed the Election Commission to respond within the next 10 working days.
The petitioners were represented by Barrister Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab. The writ was filed by several individuals, including Zahirul Haque Shahjada Miah, adviser to the BNP chairman and former president of the Faridpur District Unit BNP, Md Shah Alam Reza, central president of Zia Shishu Kishore Sanggathon, advocate M Fahad Khan, businessman SM Shahidul Islam Shaheen, Shahjahan Shikder, member of the convening committee of Char Bhadrasan upazila unit BNP, and 16 others from Sadarpur and Char Bhadrasan upazilas on September 15.
Barrister Pallab stated that the Election Commission has published a gazette notification following the completion of the delimitation process for the upcoming 13th general election. The EC has reconstituted the Faridpur-4 constituency to include Char Bhadrasan, Sadarpur, and Bhanga upazilas, excluding two unions of the upazila.
The petitioners filed the writ with the High Court challenging the gazette issued by the EC. The challenge was directed against section-7 of the Delimitation Law, 2021 of the Jatiya Sangsad and section 125(Ka) of the Bangladesh Constitution. The lawyer further noted that in 2008, the EC merged two constituencies, Faridpur-4 and Faridpur-5, to create the current Faridpur-4, comprising these three upazilas.