The budget session of Parliament began on Monday, with Opposition members, led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia, attending it after their long absence of 83 working days. But much of the euphoria over their return subsided after the Opposition lawmakers walked out of the session within two hours of joining. Earlier, the last budget session of the 9th Sangsad began with the newly elected Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Choudhury in the chair. She drew extraordinary applause from the house for being Bangladesh’s first female Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad.
The session started at 5:38 pm sharp with a confident-looking Shirin Sharmin Choudhury taking the helm of the 345-member parliament.
Before joining Parliament, the Opposition lawmakers held a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad office of the Leader of the Opposition, Khaleda Zia, who presided over the meeting.
“We will join Parliament, led by our party chief Khaleda Zia,” Zainul Abedin Farroque, Opposition chief whip, told reporters at an impromptu press briefing at the Sangsad Bhavan after emerging from the meeting.
Forty-one Opposition MPs — 38 from the BNP, two from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and one from Bangladesh Jatiya Party — remained absent from Parliament for 83 consecutive days.
Available records show that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia attended only eight out of 370 working days over 17 sessions of the current Parliament.
Other BNP MPs attended the House for only 52 days, setting a new record of boycott of Parliament. The BNP has so far boycotted Parliament for 318 working days. As the budget session began, senior lawmakers congratulated the new female Speaker, holding out their hope that Parliament would be run successfully under her able leadership.
Jute and textiles minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, lawmakers Toafil Ahmed, Rashed Khan Menon and whip ASM Firoz congratulated the new Speaker and also welcomed the Leader of the Opposition to Parliament.
They all expressed their firm conviction in the leadership of the Speaker and said she would run Parliament efficiently, demonstrating her vision and new leadership.
Parliament also unanimously adopted a condolence motion expressing sorrow at the deaths of two former lawmakers. It also expressed profound shock at the deaths of those killed in the Savar building collapse and by the cyclone Mahasen.
The Speaker said Parliament is deeply shocked at the deaths of Alhaj MA Hannan, the close companion of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and former publicity secretary of Jukta Front, Brig. Gen. (retd) Khurshid Uddin Ahmed, one of the accused in the historic Agartala conspiracy case, language movement hero Abdul Jabbar Sarker, Nibedita Nag and Sara Taifur Mahmud.
A special prayer was offered at Parliament seeking eternal peace of the departed souls. The lawmakers also stood and observed a minute’s silence to pay respect to the memories of the deceased.
The Speaker also nominated a five-member panel of chairmen for the current session of the Ninth Parliament. They are Advocate Fazle Rabbi Miah, ABM Golam Mostafa, Mujibul Huq Chunnu, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury and Farida Rahman.
-With The Independent input
