First session of ninth Parliament
Over Tk 5 cr wasted for quorum crisis: TIB
Parliament members did not attend the session in time and as a result around Tk 5.42 crore was misused during the first session of the 9th parliament due to quorum crisis.
This was revealed at a roundtable discussion on ‘strengthening effectiveness of parliament’ organised by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) at the BRAC Centre INN in the capital on Saturday. Deputy Speaker Col (Retd) Sawkat Ali was the chief guest while a number of law makers, political leaders, members of civil society and former bureaucrats took part in the discussion.
Presenting the keynote paper at the discussion Tanvir Mahmud, who led the Parliamentary Watch Team, said an amount of Tk 35 thousand is spent per minute for running parliament session. In the first session of the ninth parliamentary the quorum crisis lasted for a total of 25 hours and 48 minutes causing misuse of Tk 5 crore 41 lakh and 80 thousand.
Deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali in his speech admitted that MPs do not attend parliament session in time. He said the effort of strengthening parliament is a continuous process for ensuring country’s overall development. In order to make the law makers acquainted with the parliamentary culture and rules and to make them more capable, responsible and accountable, orientation programmes have already been started.
He said giving executive power to the law makers will not be a wise decision but their recommendations should be followed by government’s executive department for strengthening democratic process.
About the function of law makers and local government body representatives, he said it has become a controversial matter which should be resolved through discussion.
UNB adds: Political leaders, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and civil society members at a roundtable on Saturday emphasized on making the parliamentary standing committees more functional for strengthening the parliamentary democracy.
“Let the parliamentary democracy continue and we need to be careful so that it is never interrupted in the future,” former Deputy Speaker Prof Ali Ashraf told the roundtable presided over by TIB Trustee Board secretary general Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed in the chair.
Justice Abdur Rauf said decisions taken by the parliamentary standing committees should be discussed in parliament so that its activities could be strengthened. “In British parliament, the standing committees play a very active role and they usually complete some 96 percent works of parliament.”
Ruling party MPs Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Junaied Ahmed Palak, JSD MP Moinuddin Khan Badal, BNP leader Lt Gen (retd) Mahabubur Rahman, MP Rasheda Begum Hira, former diplomat Waliur Rahman and TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, among others, took part in the discussion.
Courtesy: The Bangladesh Today
Photo Courtesy: Focus Bangla
