Speaker hints at seat rearrangement
Staff correspondent
Lawmakers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition are likely to decide today whether to return to parliament for the current session after the speaker told them that he hoped to settle the dispute over seat allocation before the next session.
The lawmakers of BNP and its allies Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party did not return to the session on Monday.
They will hold a meeting this afternoon with the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, in the chair at her meeting room in the parliament to decide whether to return to the house for the current session, according to opposition chief whip Jainal Abedin Faruk.
‘The speaker phoned me today [Monday] and said he would consider our demand for returning our front-row seats to his left in the house. He also requested us to return to the house for the current session,’ Jainal Abedin Faruk told reporters after a meeting of the opposition lawmakers.
‘We have discussed his proposal in the meeting. But the lawmakers said that they did not feel reassured about his proposal,’ he said, adding, ‘We are frustrated.’
Almost all lawmakers, excluding the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, were present in the meeting, he said.
Faruk said the opposition lawmakers would meet again Tuesday afternoon with Khaleda Zia in the chair to decide whether to return to the house for the session.
Speaker Abdul Hamid told reporters, ‘There could be a change in the seat order if BNP returns during the current session so we can work things out.’
The current session of parliament will run until Feb 26. The opposition lawmakers did not return to the house after staging a walkout on January 28 in protest at the new seating arrangement giving eight instead of 21 seats in the first two rows to the left of the speaker to them. Parliament so far held five sittings on January 25, 28, 29 and February 1 and 2.
The speaker changed the seating arrangement made by his predecessor Jamiruddin Sircar who had given the main opposition lawmakers nine seats in the front row and 12 in the second row ignoring the treasury bench proposal.
An opposition delegation had a meeting with the speaker on January 29 on the matter and demanded three seats in addition to the allocated four seats in the front row. They asked the speaker to inform them about his decision by Sunday.
In the 2001 parliament, when BNP was in power, all 10 seats in the front row to the left of the speaker were allocated to opposition lawmakers – eight to Awami League and two to Jatiya Party factions.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
