Most MPs in Bangladesh do not use Parliament library

Lawmakers in Bangladesh rarely visit the Parliament library that boasts a rich collection of more than 85,000 books and subscribes to many domestic and foreign journals.

Two-thirds of the lawmakers elected in the 2014 polls have not visited the library even once.

Most MPs visiting the library tend to leave after reading newspapers.

As many as 238 MPs have never visited the library. Only 112 have done that, but less than half of them visited it more than once.

The Parliament Secretariat has provided details of usage of library from January 2014 to August, 2015.

Only 53 lawmakers have taken books on loan from the library, the usage details indicated.

Thirteen of them are ministers—Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Land Minister Shamshur Rahman Sharif, ministers of state MA Mannan, Shahriar Alam, Tarana Halim, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing, Meher Afroze and deputy minister Abdullah Al Islam Jakob.

JP leaders HM Ershad and his wife Roushan Ershad, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi, Deputy Leader in Parliament Sajeda Chowdhury and some senior lawmakers who head parliamentary standing committees like Suranjit Sengupta and MK Alamgir are among those who regularly take books on loan from the library.

Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi, who heads the library committee, in a recent conference at the Parliament's IPD conference centre regretted the poor use of the facility.

"Only a microscopic percentage of members use the library, this is unfortunate because it is very rich," said Rabbi.

An official at the library told bdnews24.com that the library is visited mostly by MPs during the first and the budget session of Parliament.

That is when many MPs seek to collect some information, he said. "Otherwise they just read newspapers and leave."

"Most of our politicians are not full-time, they are part-time into politics, so they don’t find time to equip themselves," says Nizamuddin Ahmed , who teaches Public Administration at the Chittagong University.

Ahmed also links the absence of 'any real opposition' in Parliament to the poor use of the library.

"Only if there was a vibrant opposition you would expect debates and if that happened, MPs would use the library more than they do now."