Staff correspondent
The MPs-elect of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance will not take oath today, according to the alliance sources.
The party chairperson Khaleda Zia made the decision after a meeting with her party’s two senior MPs-elect— MK Anwar and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury— at her Dhaka Cantonment residence Saturday night.
‘The BNP MPs will not take oath tomorrow (Sunday),’ a source close to the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, said.
The Jatiya Sangsad secretariat has invited the MPs-elect of the BNP-led alliance to take oath at 3:00pm today.
‘But the BNP is yet to confirm [whether they will be coming],’ the Jatiya Sangsad deputy speaker, Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui, told New Age at about 10:00pm Saturday.
The party did not convey its decision to MPs-elect on taking oath till Saturday evening, said Barkat Ullah Bulu, MP-elect for Noakhali 3 electoral constituency.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader ANM Shamsul Islam, also MP-elect for Chittagong 14 constituency, said a decision on oath taking would be taken at a meeting of the party leaders Sunday.
Andaleeve Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, a component of the alliance, said that the alliance lawmakers would not take oath today.
‘We will not take oath tomorrow (Sunday)’, Andaleeve, newly elected MP for Bhola 1 electoral constituency, told New Age Saturday evening.
All 29 lawmakers-elect of the BNP, excluding Khaleda, are in the capital waiting for a decision of the alliance.
According to Article 67 (1) of the constitution, an MP-elect must take oath and make formal affirmation within 90 days from the date of the first meeting of the parliament. The Jatiya Sangsad speaker may extend the time before the expiration of the period.
The 259 MPs-elect of the Awami League-led alliance and two independent ones took oath on Saturday afternoon.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
