AL MPs spend 20pc time to praise PM: TIB
Staff Reporter :
The ruling Awami League lawmakers spent 19.8 per cent of their time to praise the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the parliamentary session, while the main opposition Jatiya Party (JaPa) in parliament has lacked a strong role in parliamentary proceedings.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) published the findings of a research on parliamentary activities titled ‘Parliament Watch’ at a programme at its Dhanmondi office in Dhaka on Sunday.
According to TIB findings, the ruling party, which bagged absolute majority in the uncontested 11th parliamentary elections enjoyed widespread exercise of unilateral powers over legislation, budget and standing committees in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS).
At this time, a total of 54 hours and 38 minutes of working hours were lost due to quorum crisis, which estimated value is about Tk 89.29 crore, TIB said in its report.
Executive Director of TIB Iftekharuzzaman said, “It is difficult to play effective role in parliament due to absolute majority.
The culture of boycotting parliament has stopped, but it has to pay a high price.
Because, the Parliament is now without a real opposition.
The party that now has the identity of the opposition in parliament has tried to play a somewhat more active role than before.
But they were in total identity crisis. As a result, the expected role of the opposition party was not seen.”
He said that though the current 11th parliament has improved in various areas compared to the last three parliaments, but has not as effective as expected.
According to Iftekharuzzaman, “there is no chance to say that the incumbent Parliament has been able to play the expected role.
The current Parliament could not play its expected role due to the absolute majority of the ruling party and the lack of a viable opposition party.”
It also said that 26 per cent of the time was spent on the discussion of the motion of thanks on the President’s speech and only 16.7 per cent of the time was spent on legislation.
The research found that the ruling party lawmakers spent most of their time for praising the prime minister and various achievements of the government. The lawmakers spent 19.4 per cent of their time for praising the government’s achievements.
According to the TIB findings, about 27 per cent of the time was spent on public representation and accountability.
As per TIB’s findings, the members of parliament of the ruling party spent about 18 per cent criticising the other political parties, while MPs from the ruling party spent only 0.4 per cent by discussing about irregularities and corruption in the Parliament.
