Dhaka, April 18 -- Poet and public intellectual Farhad Mazhar has strongly rejected the legitimacy of Bangladesh's interim government, criticizing it for upholding a constitution forged under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's administration-even after the transformative events of the July Uprising.

Speaking at a roundtable hosted by the Imaginext Foundation at the National Press Club on Friday, Mazhar argued that the political developments following the uprising have failed to mark a genuine departure from the past.

"This mass uprising has not led us toward the creation of a new state," he stated. "Sheikh Hasina's fascist constitution remains intact. I do not think that is right."

He further declared: "I do not consider a governmen...