DHAKA, Dec 28: Bangladesh's main opposition party said on Thursday it would not enact blasphemy laws if it wins nationwide polls in January, after women and minority groups criticised its pact with Islamist allies.

“Nowhere in the memorandum of understanding it is mentioned that a new blasphemy law would be enacted,” main opposition Awami League spokesman Abdul Jalil said in a statement.

“No such law has been passed in independent Bangladesh and will not be enacted in the future,” he said, clarifying the opposition's stand on a deal signed with a key Islamic party ally, Khelafat Majlish, early this week.

The parties pledged that if they won control of parliament in the January 22 elections, they would not enact any laws going against the Holy Quran or allowing blasphemy.

The parties also suggested that fatwas could be recognised in some cases.

Civic groups slammed the pact and said it would lead to instances of local justice based on religion as opposed to civil laws, and that women and minorities could be victimised as a result.

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country, with nearly 90 per cent of its 144 million people adherents of Sunni sect.

In the late 1980s the country officially recognised Islam as the state religion but it uses civil law in day-to-day governance as opposed to Shariah.

Mr Jalil said on Thursday that the parties, if elected, would in fact curb the issuing of religious edicts and keep the legal system that the country inherited from the British colonial period.

“The law and judicial system will continue in future. No one else will be given the authority to conduct trials,” he said.

The country's supreme court banned the issuing of religious edicts over civil cases in 1991.

—AFP