16TH AMENDMENT VERDICT Direct election to JS women reserved seats favoured

The Appellate Division in its 16th Amendment verdict, released Tuesday, hoped that the 50 women MPs from the reserved seats would be elected through direct election.
The verdict called electing the women MPs from the reserved seats by 300 elected MPs as ‘incompatible with the spirit of the Preamble of the Constitution as well as its Article 7(1).
It said that as the women MPs from the reserved seats were elected by elected MPs, political parties get them in proportion to the elected MPS they have in Parliament.
The court said that when Parliament’s 50 seats were reserved women it was a remarkable step forward to promote women’s participation with law making process.
At that time, said the verdict, the idea in focus was that democracy in this country was not mature enough for which there was ‘still the need to promote participation of women in Parliament by making special provisions for them so that they can come to the Parliament without the need to go to the public.
The verdict hoped that now arrangements could be made to get the 50 women MPs elected to Parliament through direct election to ensure women’s representation in Parliament.
The apex court said that as this country had women prime ministers as well as the leaders of the opposition since 1991, it signified that women MPs could be directly elected by the people just like their male colleagues.
In the 16th amendment verdict, the Appellate Division upheld a High Court’s verdict which had struck down the 16th Amendment as ‘unconstitutional ’ and restored the Supreme Judicial Council.
The controversial 16 Amendment had restored parliament’s power to remove SC judges. 
Women’s rights campaigner Farida Akhter said that the apex court vindicated their longstanding movement in support of the demand for getting 50 women MPs through direct vote.
She said that the way the MPs from the reserved seats were nominated was ‘humiliating’ for them.
The current method of electing women MPs, she said, don’t make them women’s representatives, rather the parties with more MPs get them as ‘bonus’. 
Farida Akhter said that women MPs should be elected by voters on their ‘merit’. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net