Dhaka, Oct 3 (bdnews24.com)—As the last working day of the current 8th Jatiya Sangsad will be over Wednesday, the main opposition Awami League (AL) has alleged that the Speaker's 'partisan' role is responsible for making the Jatiya Sangsad 'ineffective'.
Terming Speaker Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar as 'totally failed', the AL lawmakers Tuesday said the AL could speak in parliament when BNP legislators Mirza Golam Hafiz and Sheikh Razzaq Ali were speakers.
Because of present speaker's 'partisan' role, popular issues like price hike of essentials, power failure, Islamic militancy, grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, killing of former finance minister Shah A M S Kibria and others could not be discussed in parliament.
The AL allegations were made at a press briefing at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. AL general secretary Abdul Jalil, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Mohammad Nasim and chief whip of the opposition Abdus Shahid made the allegations against the speaker.
The AL lawmakers, however, did not tell anything about their party's two long boycotts of parliament.
Speaker Sircar denied the AL allegations and claimed himself 'neutral'.
The AL lawmakers joined the 8th parliament on 24 June 2002 (third session) though parliament started on October 28, 2001. The AL MPs started boycotting parliament sessions on June 25, 2003 and joined the House on May 12, 2004 to save membership. The AL stayed away from parliament from January 31, 2005 and joined the House February 12, 2006. As per the Constitution, a lawmaker loses his or her membership for absence of 90 consecutive working days without the written approval of the speaker.
Abdul Jalil alleged that the AL tried to make parliament effective by playing constructive role as opposition, but the government and the speaker did not give them the chance by making the Jatiya Sangsad a 'party organisation'.
Terming the speaker 'totally failed', Mohammad Nasim said the AL lawmakers tried to discuss issues of price hike of essentials, power failure, Islamic militancy, grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, killing of former finance minister Shah A M S Kibria. He said the speaker always defended the ruling party.
Sheikh Selim said the AL MPs submitted hundreds of notices for holding discussions on people's problems, but speaker disposed of all the notices. So, parliament could not fulfil the hope and aspiration of the people, he said.
Parliament secretariat sources said the AL MPs in the current 23rd session alone submitted 152 notices to discuss issues like price hike of essentials, power failure, Islamic militancy, grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, killing of former finance minister Shah A M S Kibria and others. All these notices came as adjournment motions. But speaker on Sunday rejected all of the notices.
bdnews24.com/1813 hrs
