Bangladesh and China will sign an economic cooperation pact during the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, a Bangladeshi official said Monday.

Xi, who arrived here Monday on a two-day official visit, is making a ‘return visit’ to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s March trip to China and will see updating on the pacts signed then.

This is the first visit by a Chinese leader since the Awami League-led government assumed power in January last year.

The Chinese vice president is leading a 35-member delegation and will sign an agreement regarding economic cooperation, under which China will provide 40 million yuan ($5.8 million) as a grant.

Over the past few years, China has replaced India as Bangladesh’s biggest import destination with bilateral trade between the two nations standing at US$ 4.58 billion, though heavily skewed in favour of Beijing with Bangladesh imports being US$ 4.4 billion.

Last month, China offered duty-free access to some 5,000 Bangladeshi products in a ‘goodwill gesture’.

China had opposed Bangladesh’s 1971 separation from Pakistan and recognised the new nation only in October 4, 1975. However, it has now emerged as the largest supplier of military hardware, besides a large number of commodities, to Bangladesh.

Jamaat-e-Islami has agreed to change the clause in its constitution on ‘divine law’ in the face of Election Commission’s objection.

The fundamentalist religion-based party will exclude sub-clause 5 under section 2 which states, in short, that the only sovereign power is the almighty Allah and that the party would not accept any law except that of the almighty.

On top of that, opposition BNP’s key ally will ensure that its central committee has 33 percent women as members by 2020.

Moreover, Jamaat submitted a written explanation about four other issues, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed told reporters after a meeting with the Election Commission on Monday.

Chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, election commissioner M Sohul Hussain and the EC secretary were present at the meeting on the party’s constitution.

A nine-strong Jamaat delegation included its assistant secretary Mohammed Kamaruzzaman, Abdul Kader Mollah and ATM Azharul Islam.

The party had been notified thrice by the EC to amend sections of its constitution that contradicted the country’s constitution and electoral laws.

Mojaheed said, “A sentence of the constitution was supposed to be amended at the time of registration. But it appeared in the party’s permanent constitution due to a printing mistake.”

“The amendment will be made again,” he said

Regarding women leadership, Mojaheed said it was at the footnote of the constitution but the EC demanded that the provision be included into the main body of the constitution.

The amendment will be made at a meeting of Jamaat’s top decision-making body, the Majlish-e-Shura, scheduled in the first week of the next month, he said.

“Written explanation has been submitted to the Election Commission on some clauses including establishment of an Islam-based society based on justice and provisions for non-Muslims.”

He said, “Bangladesh Communist Party’s constitution speaks of establishing communism which is contrary to the state’s constitution. But the Election Commission did not object to that.”

“We do not think Election Commission’s objection to establishment of an Islamic society based on justice is rational,” he said.

“Both BNP and Awami League have a tradition for nominating candidates. Jamaat-e-Islami also nominates its candidates based on the decision of party’s Majlish-e-Shura.”

“The Election Commission has said that it will inform us about its decision later.”

Regarding Jamaat’s constitution, CEC Shamsul Huda said Jamaat aspired to establish a religion-based society.

But according to law, a party’s constitution cannot discriminate against citizens on the basis of religion, gender, colour, creed, race or sect, he said indicating that a religion-based party was bound to discriminate.

“We asked for an explanation since the law and Jamaat’s constitution contradicted each other in spirit.”

“This is the first time that Jamaat has spoken of non-Muslim membership in its constitution,” he said, adding that a letter was sent to Jamaat asking it to amend six issues.

“They have agreed on two amendments and gave explanations regarding the other four issues in writing.”

The election chief said his office would seek further amendments if Jamaat’s response is found unsatisfactory.