Editorial
Respecting parliamentary norms
Top leaders should lead by example
Prime minister and leader of the House Sheikh Hasina, while welcoming the opposition to parliament did not hesitate to suggest that they returned to the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) to retain their seats. On the one hand, she never tires of urging the opposition to come to the JS to place their demands, while on the other, she could not resist imputing an opportunistic motive to the opposition lawmakers' return to parliament.
But was she not equally at fault for having set similar records when she herself was in the opposition? This kind of self-serving attitude hardly behoves someone, who served the nation twice as its prime minister on two other terms as the leader of the opposition.
The leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, on her part did not display the common courtesy of being present at the House to hear the prime minister speak. Actually, she hurriedly exited the floor of the House the moment the prime minister rose to speak. This is regrettable.
That apart, the way some women MPs both in the Treasury and the Opposition benches hurled un-parliamentary remarks and abuse at each other amounted to desecrating the sanctity of the JS. It also brought down the prestige of the women of the country.
It was sad to note that the lawmakers of both the opposition and treasury benches thumped on the tables to express their support of unseemly remarks in front of their leaders.
Ironically, this is happening in a country where both the leaders of the House and opposition are women.
The leadership of Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (AL) at their highest levels should prevail upon their lawmakers to put a leash on their tongue in deference to the parliamentary norms.
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