Bangladesh will become a communal, fundamentalist and failed state like Pakistan if the spirit of the 1972 's constitution is foiled, a citizen's platform has said. "And if it happens, parliament will be held responsible," said a press release on Monday from the Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee for Elimination of Killers and Collaborators of 1971). "If you [the government] take part in this evil, history will forever mark you as traitors," the organisation said in the release. Addressing the MPs, it said, " People voted for the Grand Alliance in the election of 2008 to ensure trial of war criminals and restoration of the four pillars of the 1972 constitution, not to legalise the 5 th and 8 th Amendments…" The special committee on charter review finalised its report on June 5 with 51- point proposals on the 15 th amendment to the constitution. In its report, the special committee proposed to keep Islam as the religion of state and to retain religion-based politics and ' Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim' in the preamble of the constitution. "Presentation of these proposals in parliament would be a treachery with the ideology and spirit of Bangabandhu and the 1972 constitution," the organisation said in the release. "It will be a hideous example to retain the proposals by disobeying the Supreme Court verdict." It said, "The former presidents Hussein Muhammad Ershad and late Ziaur Rahman passed the 5 th and 8 th amendments in order to create a fundamentalist state like Pakistan. It had nothing to do with their love for Islam." The press release was signed by committee advisors' panel president Prof Kabir Chowdhury, executive committee president justice Golam Rabbani, committee president Shahriar Kabir and general secretary Kazi Mukul. The 5 th Amendment added Bismillah to the preamble of the constitution while the 8 th introduced Islam as the religion of state.
