Parliament session
Photo: STAR
The way the MPs are behaving in making parliament the focal point of all development and political activities is not producing any results due to the absence of the opposition from parliament on childish grounds and possible lack of quorum due to the absence of the government party members. The childish issue of sitting arrangement is condemnable by any standard. I think the outgoing speaker applied very bad judgment to make the issue, and the present speaker is equally ineffective to take any agreeable decision. The other striking factor is the continuous “no talk” policy between the two top leaders of the country. Why these two leaders of this unfortunate nation are not talking yet is beyond our apprehension. The political parties have changed their political strategy without any change in their policy! Parliament has already become a personal debating club, and soon it will become "Paltan Maidan" when the opposition eventually joins the debating club after a successful negotiation through a third party- may be local or external. Some MPs with good track record and creditability have spoken in the media. They should take a more proactive role to solve the sitting arrangement problem before the people form negative views about the MPs and parliament. I would recommend the following measures to make parliament the focal point of development and politics. These are: a. Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia should take a responsible position to resolve the issue. b. Stringent rules should be framed to ensure the presence of the MPs in parliament. c. Parliament is not a debating club only, it is meant to discuss national issues and frame acts and rules to tackle any problem. This is how I see a parliament effective, not as a good debating club or indoor maidan. d. All treaties shall be presented in parliament and debated before signing with foreign countries. Only the national security issue can be discussed in camera but the main policy and strategy should be made public. e. Two important issues have been raised in parliament. One is the role of the ACC, and the issue of torture in custody. The ACC was more keen to go after the politicians, leaving a big chunk of the civil and military bureaucracy out of their net. I think it is a very reasonable proposal to bring all the constitutional posts and bodies under the watchdog of parliament, Mr. MK Alamgir has mentioned about only one. If the MPs, with exception, can exercise their free will to make parliament ineffective, as a citizen I also want to exercise my constitutional right to remind them that they are not above law and above public scrutiny through neutral media reports. I would especially urge the neutral media to be very active in reporting any wrongdoing of the lawmakers, otherwise they will soon become lawbreakers. I beg apology to our respected lawmakers and the leaders if they find my letter not acceptable to them, but think about the people!
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