Government servant in Bangladesh may need President's nod to marry foreigner

DHAKA: The Bangladesh government has introduced a bill in Parliament to make it mandatory for all public servants to take prior consent of the President before marrying a foreign national failing which they will be removed from the services.

Local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam last night tabled the bill titled 'Public Servants (Marriage with Foreign Nationals) Bill, 2015 which proposed that the government employees must obtain the President's permission for marrying or agreeing to marry a foreign national.

If a public servant gets married without the President's approval, he or she will be removed from the service, the proposed law said.

"A public servant who contravenes the provisions shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law or in the terms and conditions of his service, be liable to be removed from service," the bill read.

The Speaker of the House has forwarded the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Administration Ministry for scrutiny within 60 days, a parliamentary secretariat official said.

The bill would then return to the House with the committee's recommendations and opinions for subsequent measures.

The bill will replace the Servants (Marriage with Foreign Nationals) Ordinance-1976 which was promulgated under a martial law order while the country was being run under a military rule at that time.

Under the 1976 ordinance, government employees could marry foreign nationals with the President's permission, but foreign ministry officials were barred from marrying foreigners.

However, the Supreme Court in 2009 declared null and void all the martial law ordinances from 1976 to 1979, largely requiring many of the laws to be redrafted, this time in Bangla and in cases adding some new provisions.