Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher has said that reforms agreed upon by political parties must be implemented before the next parliamentary election.

He warned that the interim government would be compelled to introduce reforms and hold polls under a proportional representation (PR) system.

“Those who oppose reforms want to grab power through a managed election,” he said while addressing as chair a seminar titled ‘Legal basis of July Declaration and July Charter and Our Responsibilities’ at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) auditorium in the capital’s Ramna on Sunday.

Taher said, “We, who want PR, reforms, and a corruption-free Bangladesh, will unite once again in the field and force the government to accept our demands.”

Urging the chief adviser to find a way forward through dialogue with political parties, he proposed that the government could hold a package referendum on reforms, PR and election timing. “Whatever people decide, Jamaat will accept,” he said.

Criticising past governments, he remarked, “The nation had placed trust in some leaders hoping for a new journey, but once in power, they too turned into demons. Is it their misfortune or the misfortune of Bangladeshis? This deserves analysis.”

Meanwhile, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar claimed that his party had made many “sacrifices” during talks with the Consensus Commission in the interest of the nation, and called upon the BNP to also sacrifice for national interest.

He warned that if elections were held without giving legal basis to all reforms, a “catastrophe” would await the nation. Without embedding the July Charter and July Declaration into a legal framework, he said, the country risked producing “another Hasina.”