The National Consensus Commission has launched a significant round of multi-party dialogue, bringing together representatives from 30 political parties — including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Nationalist Consensus Party (NCP).

The meeting began Tuesday (June 3) morning at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital and is aimed at bridging political divides on key constitutional and governance issues.

Commission sources said the agenda for the session includes discussions on Article 70 of the Constitution, the functionality of parliamentary standing committees, the system of reserved seats for women in parliament, and the future of the caretaker government system. 

These topics remain points of disagreement among political parties and were not resolved during the previous consultations led by the Constitutional Reform Commission.

While political parties have previously shared views with the commission in individual sessions, this marks the first instance of collective, all-party discussions on the reform agenda. 

Commission officials acknowledged that a full consensus is unlikely to be reached in a single sitting and indicated that talks may continue after the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.

The current phase of dialogue follows the formation of six reform commissions by the interim government in October last year. These commissions — covering constitutional reform, electoral system, public administration, judiciary, anti-corruption, and police management — submitted their final reports in February.

The National Consensus Commission officially began its activities on February 15 with the aim of building broad-based political agreement on reforms. According to commission plans, the outcomes of the current dialogue will be compiled into a "July Charter" scheduled for publication next month.

SMS/