The law minister Sunday said the four pillars of the 1972 Constitution would be restored automatically if the Appellate Division upholds the High Court Division verdict that declared the 5th amendment to the Constitution as illegal, reports BSS.

The four pillars of the 1972 Constitution, as stated by Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed, are democracy, nationalism, secularism and socialism.

"Not many things would need to be amended if the Appellate Division upholds that verdict," he told reporters.

A High Court Division bench on August 29, 2005 declared the 5th amendment as illegal on a writ petition brought by owner of the Moon Cinema Masud Alam. An appeal petition is now pending in the Appellate Division against the High Court verdict.

Masud Alam filed the writ petition challenging the validity of a martial law regulation, incorporated in the 5th amendment to the Constitution, and the seventh martial law regulation on abandoned property, under which his Moon Cinema has been taken over by the government.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Saber Azam at his office here, the law minister said the people believe that the High Court verdict had reflected the sprit of the War of Liberation.

On another question, he said, seeking opinion of the Law Commission does not mean that the Constitution should be amended.