JS SEAT ROW
Opposition, speaker take hardline stances
Staff correspondent
The crisis over seat arrangement in parliament deepened with both the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led main opposition and the speaker, Abdul Hamid, seemingly taking hardline stances on Monday.
The opposition lawmakers, who already abstained from eight out of 10 sittings, decided to keep pending a decision on whether to return to the parliament session until the speaker made a specific decision on giving back their front row seats. They did not return to the session on Monday.
‘We have decided to keep pending our decision on whether we should return to the house as the speaker is yet to say anything specific about our demand for giving back our seats to his left in the house,’ opposition chief whip Jainal Abedin Faruk told reporters after a meeting of the opposition lawmakers Monday afternoon.
The speaker, Abdul Hamid, on Sunday evening told Faruk that he would consider rearrangement of the seats before the next session if the opposition returned to the house in the current session. Faruk visited the speaker at his office to invite him to the wedding reception of his [Faruk] daughter.
Faruk said he had discussed the speaker’s proposal with the leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, at her Gulshan office Sunday evening. ‘The speaker must make specific decisions on returning our seats and let us know about it,’ he said.
When asked how long the opposition would remain outside parliament, he said the opposition lawmakers would meet again as soon as the speaker would decide to restore the seating arrangement of the first sitting of the house.
The opposition lawmakers did not return to the house since they had walked out 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. The parliament so far held tenth sittings from January 25.
The speaker changed the seating arrangement laid out 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.
Faruk said that the parliament chief whip, Abdus Shahid, had sent two letters to him Monday morning requesting nomination of opposition lawmakers to 37 standing committees on different ministries and to eight other parliamentary committees by February 11.
The treasury bench also seeks names of chairmen from the opposition for four standing committees on different ministries.
‘We have discussed about the requests of the treasury bench in the meeting,’ he said, adding, ‘We want assurance that they would not change the names of the opposition members to be sent by us’.
The treasury bench must clearly say for which standing committees the opposition would nominate its lawmakers as chairmen so that it [opposition] can choose appropriate lawmakers for the bodies, he said.
When asked why they wanted an assurance from the treasury bench in this regard, Faruk said that he, in consultation with the leader of the opposition, sent two names – MK Anwar and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury – to represent the opposition in the special committee on parliamentary activities. ‘But they [ruling party] unilaterally dropped Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and replaced him with me without taking my consent,’ he said, adding, ‘It is unusual in parliamentary practices.’
When asked about the opposition’s demand for seat rearrangement, speaker Abdul Hamid told reporters Monday evening, ‘I have nothing to do if they frequently change their stance.’
‘Earlier they said they would be happy with three more seats in the front row. Now they are asking for nine seats,’ he said.
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 from the Awami League and two from Jatiya Party factions.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
