The Bangladesh Parliament has passed an amendment to the July Uprising Memorial Museum Ordinance, allowing the Minister or State Minister for Cultural Affairs to serve as the chairperson of the museum’s governing board. The bill was approved on Friday through a voice vote, following a proposal by ruling party MP Anichur Rahman. Opposition lawmakers walked out, accusing the government of breaking a prior agreement to pass 98 ordinances without changes.

Previously, the ordinance required that the board be chaired by a distinguished expert in education, history, literature, or culture. The amendment replaces that provision, transferring leadership to the cultural affairs minister. It also empowers the government to remove any board member and eliminates the fixed three-year term for the chairperson. Former interim government adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, who currently holds the chair as an expert, will lose his position once the law takes effect.

Opposition MPs protested the move, claiming it places the museum under direct government control. The Speaker and ministers defended the amendment as a legitimate parliamentary process, though some acknowledged that the prior committee understanding had been disrupted.