Dhaka, July 23 - Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party, expects its non-Muslim members to take an oath to 'defend national sovereignty', but this is not required of its Muslim members, a media report said Thursday.

The party, that claims to have 25,000 non-Muslim members, submitted its 'reformed' constitution to the Election Commission (EC) Wednesday.

'I shall actively play a role in defending the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh,' reads a section of the oath scheduled for non-Muslim members.

Both Muslim and non-Muslim members, however, must swear to abide by the rules and decisions of the party, giving the highest priority to implementing the decisions, The Daily Star newspaper said quoting the party's statute.

In addition, a non-Muslim Jamaat member must work for establishing the 'rule of Islam' in the country, in order to continue being a member of the party.

The provision was included in Jamaat's constitution for 'removing religious and gender discriminations' in a bid to qualify for registration.