Published : 23 Sep 2026, 01:30 PM
Updated : 23 Sep 2026, 01:58 PM
Thirty-four MPs from Jamaat-e-Islami — about half of the opposition party’s parliamentary contingent — are travelling abroad together, many accompanied by their spouses, on what the opposition party describes as a “study tour”.
Twenty-six of the lawmakers have taken their spouses, while several other party leaders and family members are also part of the multi-country trip, according to Jamaat officials and MPs travelling with the group.
After the current trip involving about half of Jamaat’s parliamentary group, the party is considering sending the remaining MPs to Europe.
Several party leaders said they could travel in one or more delegations by December.
The tour began in Malaysia on Sept 13 before moving to Singapore and then the Philippines, where the MPs are currently staying. Saudi Arabia, where they plan to perform Umrah, and Bahrain are next on the itinerary for most of them.
Most are expected to return to Bangladesh by Oct 1.
Government travel orders seen by bdnews24.com indicate that some members of the group also have approval to travel to Oman, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia.
Jamaat says the trip is aimed at exchanging parliamentary experience and exposing its lawmakers to different approaches to leadership and governance.
The trip has nevertheless drawn attention at home, not least because so many opposition MPs are out of the country at the same time.
It also coincided with a long march organised by Jamaat’s 11-party alliance on Sept 19 to press the government over implementation of the referendum result and the country’s oil and gas crisis.
Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, head of Jamaat’s publicity department, dismissed suggestions that the visit had been kept secret.
“This is not a secret tour,” he said. “It is taking place at the invitation of expatriates and as part of various programmes.”
Jamaat, being the main opposition party, commands 68 elected seats in parliament, while its broader alliance returned 77 MPs. That makes the 34 lawmakers now abroad exactly half of Jamaat’s own directly elected parliamentary group.
How Many Countries are the MPs Visiting?
Bangladeshi MPs travelling abroad are required to obtain a no-objection certificate from the speaker of parliament.
bdnews24.com has reviewed government orders (GOs) relating to at least 10 of the MPs on the trip.
Most of the itineraries include Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Thailand. Some lawmakers also received permission to travel to the UAE and Australia.
The wider tour involving the 34 MPs, their family members, two party leaders and a writer began in Malaysia on Sept 13. Some members travelled there the following day.
Zubair said the MPs did not all leave Bangladesh together.
“No one went together,” he said. “Those travelling went according to their own arrangements.”
The group left Malaysia for Singapore on Sept 17 and travelled from there to the Philippines last Saturday.
bdnews24.com spoke on Tuesday to at least three members of the group while they were in the Philippines.
One of them, Akhtaruzzaman, said: “There are 34 MPs in the travelling group, and 26 of them have their spouses with them.
“We are now in the Philippines. In another two days we will go to Saudi Arabia.”
The MPs would then travel through Bahrain before returning home by Oct 1, he said.
Akhtaruzzaman is himself travelling with his wife.
Syed Zainul Abedin, the Jamaat MP for Dhaka-4, also confirmed on Tuesday night that he was in the Philippines.
“I’m in the Philippines. I’ll speak in detail later,” he told bdnews24.com.
Why the Group Tour?
Jamaat parliamentary party spokesman Najibur Rahman Momen described the trip as an exercise in “knowledge sharing”.
“We are trying to understand the parliamentary systems in different countries and gain experience of leadership and state governance,” he said.
Zubair offered a similar explanation.
“They did not all travel together,” he said. “This is a tour for education and exchanging experience. Our leaders have made similar visits to different countries in the past.”
What is different this time, he acknowledged, is the number of Jamaat lawmakers now in parliament.
“We never had this many MPs at the same time before,” Zubair said.
“But we have always had to travel abroad from time to time. Expatriates invite us and we participate in various programmes. This is nothing new.”
Family members and relatives are also accompanying some of the MPs, he said.
Jamaat leaders, however, did not give a precise figure for the total number of people travelling.
A member of the party’s international committee said planning for the tour had been completed about two months earlier.
His explanation was that after spending a long period outside government and parliament, many Jamaat MPs had not had an opportunity to observe parliamentary systems overseas at close quarters.
The trip was intended in part to give them that exposure, he said.
Akhtaruzzaman, a retired major who is travelling with the group, said the entire programme would last 16 days.
Asked why so many MPs had gone abroad and why relatively little had been said publicly about the trip beforehand, four Jamaat leaders offered broadly the same explanation: the lawmakers were there to observe politics, parliaments and governance in other countries.
A member of the international committee said many of the party’s MPs had been unable for years to gain first-hand experience of how foreign parliaments function.
“The reason Jamaat organised this trip is so that they can understand politics, parliament and society in the countries they are visiting and use that experience in Bangladesh,” he said.
He said the arrangements had been finalised at least two months ago.
Momen again called it an “experience-sharing” exercise.
“It is a knowledge-sharing tour,” he said. “By visiting these countries, we are trying to understand how parliamentary systems work and how leadership functions.”
Akhtaruzzaman put it more simply.
“The purpose of the trip is to look around, to broaden our perspective,” he said.
“We want to see what neighbouring countries are doing, how they operate, what progress they have made and how they work.”
Asked whether the tour had been organised by the party or by the MPs themselves, he replied: “It has been organised partly by the party and partly personally. It's a combination of everything.”
He said the lawmakers had visited local government bodies and educational institutions during their first two days in the Philippines.
Seminar in Malaysia
The MPs also attended a seminar in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 16.
Among the speakers was Maszlee Malik, a former Malaysian education minister and chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), which operates under the Malaysian prime minister’s department.
The seminar discussed contemporary approaches to parliamentary leadership and governance, drawing in part on British-Pakistani scholar Ziauddin Sardar’s concept of “Postnormal Times” and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s “Malaysia Madani” framework.
IAIS describes itself as a Malaysian policy think tank.
Sardar’s Postnormal Times framework examines periods of rapid change and uncertainty in which familiar assumptions and established approaches are no longer sufficient.
Born in Pakistan and raised in east London, Sardar has had a long association with Anwar Ibrahim and is director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies.
Maszlee discussed the relationship between that body of thinking and Anwar’s Madani approach during the session with the Jamaat MPs.
Europe Next?
The current tour may not be the last.
A senior figure in Jamaat’s international wing said the party was considering sending the rest of its MPs to Europe in one or more delegations by December.
The possible programme would involve exchanges with the European Union, parliaments in different European countries and international organisations.
A central Jamaat leader said discussions within the party over such a tour were continuing.
Asked about plans for lawmakers who are not part of the current trip, parliamentary spokesman Momen said: “If there is another opportunity, the others will go. There is no problem.”
Two senior party leaders also said Jamaat Ameer Shafiqur Rahman could travel to several countries by December.
The party’s Nayeb-E-Ameer Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher has obtained a no-objection certificate for a visit to the United States beginning Oct 26.
Who Else is on the Tour?
The travelling party is not limited to MPs.
It includes Selim Uddin, ameer of Jamaat’s Dhaka Metropolitan North unit; retired major Akhtaruzzaman, who joined Jamaat after previously being associated with the BNP; Akhtaruzzaman’s wife; and writer Ziaul Haque.
The MPs are:
Mohammad Kamal Hossain of Dhaka-5; Md Abul Kalam Azad of Khulna-6; Masud Sayeedi of Pirojpur-1; Md Rashedul Islam Rashed of Sherpur-1; SK Jahangir Hossain Helal of Khulna-2; Sheikh Manzurul Haque Rashed of Bagerhat-2; Md Nurul Amin of Rangpur-6; Md Masud Parvez of Chuadanga-1; Md Enamul Haque of Naogaon-2; Md Ruhul Amin of Chuadanga-2; Salahuddin of Gazipur-4; Md Mostafizur Rahman of Kurigram-4; Md Ataur Rahman of Narail-2; Syed Zainul Abedin of Dhaka-4; and Md Kamrul Hasan of Mymensingh-6.
The group also includes Abdul Muntakim of Nilphamari-4; Md Anwarul Islam of Kurigram-1; Md Abdul Wares of Gaibandha-5; Md Majedur Rahman of Gaibandha-1; Alfaruk Abdul Latif of Nilphamari-2; Mohammad Zahirul Islam of Chattogram-16; Md Fazlur Rahman of Joypurhat-1; Md Abdul Sattar of Nilphamari-1; Md Mizanur Rahman of Chapainawabganj-2; Muhammad Ali Asgar of Pabna-3; Md Abu Taleb Mondal of Pabna-4; Md Raihan Siraji of Rangpur-1; Obaidullah Salafi of Nilphamari-3; Masum Mostafa of Netrokona-5; Md Tajuddin Khan of Meherpur-1; Md Afzal Hossain of Kushtia-4; Md Abdul Karim of Gaibandha-2; Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem of Dhaka-14; and Gazi Enamul Haque of Jashore-5.
