Bangladesh's Supreme Court has reinstated a ban on Islamic political parties in the latest blow to religious hard-liners in the impoverished South Asian country, a minister said Thursday. In a detailed, 1 that had allowed religious political parties to flourish and legalised military rule. "Secularism will again be the cornerstone of our constitution," law minister Shafiq Ahmed told AFP on Thursday.
"Islamic parties cannot use religion in politics any more," he said. In 1988, a second military-led government made Islam the state "It is a landmark verdict," Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik, who is also dean of law at the private BRAC university told AFP, adding that lawmakers would now have to clarify how the verdict would be applied by law.
Since the Awami League's landslide election win over the Islamist-allied Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 2008, the government has cracked down on Islamic groups and parties. "We are now studying this verdict," said BNP spokesman, Khandaker Delwar Hossain.
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