Acting President Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed may relinquish his office (office of vice-president) soon after the Speaker fs elected In the Inau gural session of Jattya Sangsad (parliament) on Friday, if the Acting President vacates his office, power of the President will vest In the Speaker as per Article 55 (2) of the

Constitution.

Article 55 (2) reads " At any time when both the offices of President and Vlce-Presl dent are vacant or when both President and Vice-President

arc unable to discharge the functions of their respective offices on account of absence, illness or any other cause, the Speaker shall act as President until a new President is elected A BNP

source said that handing over of power to the Speaker will reflect the spirit of the Joint Declaration of the three political alliances, which calls for giving power to a sovereign parliament. Central theme of the declaration is handing over power to the Speaker asserted a BNP source.

But Awaml League-led Eight-party Alliance and leftleaning Five-party Alliance differ with this interpretation of BNP. These two alliances hold that the sovereign parliament means the parliamentary form of government. BNP’s departure from the declaration will be a clear betrayal with the Joint Declaration, they maintain. A BNP constitutional expert said the sovereign parliament does not mean a parliamentary form of government. A parliament Is sovereign when it can make laws without any interference from the chief executive. The present parliament is fully sovereign in regard to taw making. he said

The power transfer issue may generate heated debate on the floor on April 5. when parliament goes into session Awami League, tn the mean time, called on the Acting President on Tuesday and requested htm not to hand over power to the Speaker. The Acting President asked the Awami League delegation to see relevant constitutional provisions without giving any clear indication that he would relinquish his office.

Meanwhile. the admlntstra tion is facing the problem of diarchy as the executive power vests in the Acting President and Begum Khaleda Zia is a Prime Minister without any executive power But the re sponsibtltty of the entire ad ministration lies with BNP which has got the mandate of the people tn Parliament polls.

In view of the situation. BNP top notchers are thinking of electing some one speaker who carries the party with him or her. Abdur Rahman Biswas of Barisal is likely to become the Deputy Speaker, according to BNP sources.