Staff Correspondent
The BNP-led opposition yesterday decided to abstain from parliament proceedings until the speaker decides on their demand for three more seats in the front row of the House.
The opposition lawmakers boycotted parliament on its second sitting on Wednesday, placing their demand to the speaker, and remained out of the House for three working days out of four since the ninth parliament began its journey on January 25. The treasury bench outright rejected the opposition demand.
Meanwhile, Speaker Abdul Hamid yesterday said he is trying to resolve the problem. He urged the opposition lawmakers to return to parliament and gave assurance that he would continue his efforts to end the crisis.
“If anyone volunteers, it will be easy to solve the problem,” Hamid told reporters at his office yesterday evening, which means if any lawmaker, who now sits in the front row, agrees to sit in the second row, the seat will be offered to the opposition.
The speaker yesterday talked to the opposition chief whip over telephone and urged them to join the House. He gave assurance that if the matter is not settled in the first session, which ends February 26, something will certainly be done before the beginning of the second session.
After taking decision to continue the boycott at a meeting of the opposition lawmakers at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury said, “We are waiting for the speaker’s decision.”
BNP lawmaker MK Anwar said the present seating arrangement for the front row on the left side of the speaker’s podium might create an unusual situation in the House since opposition lawmakers and ministers are sitting together. “We may discuss the issue with the speaker if he wants,” he said.
Anwar alleged that the ruling party is trying to establish a BAKSAL-like one-party rule in parliament. “We do not want to boycott the House. We want to join the House to play our role,” he said.
Opposition Chief Whip Joynal Abedin Faruk said they will sit today again before resumption of the House proceedings to review the overall situation.
The opposition lawmakers of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party joined the inaugural session of the ninth parliament but walked out of the House before the president’s address.
On the next sitting on Wednesday last week, they entered the House and staged a walk-out in protest at the changes in the seating plan earlier done by immediate past speaker Jamiruddin Sircar.
Sircar had allocated all 10 seats of the front row to the opposition lawmakers including lone Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Oli Ahmed, which annoyed the treasury bench.
At the demand of the treasury bench, the new speaker changed the arrangement and gave the opposition four seats in the front row.
The treasury bench said considering its strength in the House the BNP-led opposition is entitled to get only three seats in the front row, but the speaker allocated five seats to it including one for Oli Ahmed.
The BNP-led opposition has 31 lawmakers in the House now.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
