Khandkar Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, yesterday sought time from parliament for scrutinising the much-talked-about bill.

The law ministry plans to pass the bill in the next session of parliament, scheduled for January 2004.

The committee is trying to submit its report to parliament by the next session, the chairman told The Daily Star yesterday.

At its yesterday's meeting, the JS body decided to review all recommendations sent by different quarters to the law ministry. The committee asked the ministry to submit all the recommendations to it within four days. The committee decided to sit again by December 15.

The bill was placed before parliament on July 10 and sent to the committee for submitting a report after scrutinising it within 15 days. But the committee could not meet the deadline, as the ministry had not decided the fate of the bill. On September 13, the committee met and discussed the bill but could not make any decision. The committee met for the second day yesterday.

Asked about the delay in submitting the report, the chairman said, "Since it would be a constitutional body, we want to consider public opinion about the bill to avoid further controversy.

"We did not discuss any specific points at the meeting," the chairman added.

After placing of the bill before parliament, criticism mounted against the inclusion of two ministers on the selection body of the proposed commission. The law minister declared that the two ministers would be excluded from the six-member selection committee.

The committee chairman presided over the meting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. Members and officials concerned were present.