The ninth parliament goes into its tenth session this morning with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party saying that it would stay out.
Sources in the parliament secretariat said that the session would be very brief and convened only to avert a constitutional obligation of keeping not more than 60 days between the end of one session and the first sitting of the following session. The ninth session of the parliament was prorogued on July 7.
The business advisory committee on the eve of the session decided to hold a meeting at 10:00am to decide the tenure of the session beginning at 11:00am, the sources said.
BNP leaders said that the main opposition would continue abstaining from the session for lack of congenial atmosphere as recent government activities only aggravated the situation.
'We have decided to not attend the session tomorrow,' BNP leader Moudud Ahmed told New Age on Wednesday. Recent activities of the government have proved that the government is not sincere about the opposition's joining the parliament, he added.
He said that the gap between the treasury bench and the opposition widened after the government had passed the fifteenth amendment to the constitution scraping the caretaker government provision.
'The situation also deteriorated as the government lodged a case against our chairperson Khaleda Zia,' said Moudud, a standing committee member of the BNP.
He also said that instead of taking steps to reduce the gap with the opposition parties, the government had started carrying out repression against BNP leaders and activists.
'The police attack on the opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque was an example of government oppression against opposition leaders,' he said, adding that law and order deteriorated sharply during the tenure of the Awami League-led alliance government.
Another standing committee member, MK Anwar, earlier said that there was no possibility for the party to attend the session.
'I do not see any possibility of attending the forthcoming session,' he told New Age on Monday, adding that his party was not interested about attending the parliament under the present political circumstances.
The main opposition attended the eighth session of the parliament last on March 25 after boycotting 74 consecutive sittings to keep the membership of party lawmakers valid.
The BNP did not attend the second, third, sixth, seventh and ninth sessions.
The party started boycotting the parliament from the second session over some issues such as seating arrangement in the front row, demanding withdrawal of the cases against Khaleda Zia, her two sons and other BNP leaders and activists, the scrapping of the decision to cancel the lease of Khaleda Zia's house in the Dhaka cantonment and ensuring a congenial atmosphere in the parliament for the opposition to speak.
The chief whip Abdus Shahid urged the BNP to join the session and assured them of ensuring a congenial atmosphere.
'I urged the BNP to attend the session and place its demands there,' Abdus Shahid told New Age on Wednesday, adding that the opposition would get more opportunity to speak this session although it has always got an opportunity to speak in a congenial atmosphere.
He also said that he had wanted to communicate with the oppositions leaders personally with request for attending the session and phoned BNP leaders MK Anwar and Moudud Ahmed on Tuesday and Wednesday but they were not available.
The parliament, however, made all the preparations for today's session.
Twelve bills will be placed in the session. The new bill that will be placed is the Science and Technology Development Bill 2011, the sources said.
The sources said that 54 questions had been submitted for the prime minister's question-answer hour while 670 questions submitted for the question-answer session of other ministers.
Two hundred and fifty call attention and adjournment notices have also been submitted for the session, the sources said.
Source : New Age
