Unwillingness of the treasury bench to discuss the burning issues in parliament despite repeated calls from the opposition parties has forced the present parliament to witness only three general discussions in over four years.

In the past, the matters of public importance have never been so neglected in proceedings of the House. The last three parliaments (elected in 1988, 1991, and 1996) held dozens of general discussions on issues concerning public welfare. Most of the previous parliaments had discussions on the country's foreign policy in accordance with the rules of procedure.

Term of the present parliament will expire on October 27 this year. But due to an extreme reluctance on the part of the government, the possibility of a general discussion being held is remote, if not zero.

In the past parliaments, the ruling parties including the BNP had considerably been in favour of allowing parliamentary discussion on issues of immediate importance.

Since its first meeting on October 28, 2001, the current parliament held discussions on law and order, price hike of essentials and August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League (AL) rally. The main opposition AL joined the debates on law and order and price hike. But the party boycotted the discussion on August 21 blasts on September 13, 2004 after the speaker had denied its demand for holding the discussion adjourning all other business of the day.

The AL lawmakers started boycotting the House since then. On its return to parliament, ending a 17-month boycott on February 12, the largest opposition in parliament demanded urgent discussion on 10 issues including crises of power, diesel and fertiliser, price spiral of essentials, law and order, grenade attacks on AL rally.

But the treasury bench refused to allow any discussion on the pretext of having little time to do so and urged the main opposition to raise the issues rather during the motion of thanks on the president's address.

In response, the AL lawmakers demanded that at least one or two of the issues be discussed on every workday of the current session. By this time, more than five hours have been spent on debating whether to hold formal discussion on the burning issues.

More time is likely to be wasted on the same matter in the next workdays as the AL lawmakers have decided to keep calling for discussion each time they would take the floor on a point of order.

How much time will it take up if the treasury bench allows general discussions on the issues? Discussion on a single topic should not take more than an hour. It may even be held for half an hour. Besides, the ruling alliance's refusal to discuss the matters on grounds of shortage of time appears to have been done without rhyme or reason.

The facts available in the proceedings of the House indicate that none of the previous governments had so bluntly opposed a call for a discussion in parliament.

Since restoration of parliamentary democracy after the fall of Ershad regime, the previous two parliaments--fifth and seventh--were much better than the current one in terms of discussing issues of urgent importance. General discussions on dozens of topics during the terms of those two parliaments were possible because of the then governments' attitude favourable to discussion.

The fifth parliament held at least 11 discussions on the same number of issues ranging from foreign policy to the prevailing situation in educational institutions across the country. State of the educational institutions back then was debated for two days. The House even formed a 15-member parliamentary body to review the way developments were taking place at the institutions.

Besides, discussions on seven-murder in the city's Lalbagh area, push-in attempts by India, Jamaat Ameer Golam Azam and Gono Adalat [people's tribunal], miserable conditions inside the prisons, cyclone in the southern districts, transport strike and accompanying hassles in the northern region.

The then ruling BNP allowed the general discussion on Golam Azam and Gono Adalat to continue for three consecutive workdays.

The sixth parliament, constituted after the controversial election of February 15, 1996, saw only 11 workdays with no general discussion.

The seventh parliament held at least 11 general discussions on as many number of issues ranging from foreign policy to law and order. Besides, there were debates on national energy policy, education policy, water-sharing treaty, share market fiasco, transit and regional cooperation, and price of essentials. AL was the ruling party then.

The fourth parliament during the Ershad regime held at least on eight occasions discussion on foreign policy, environment and some other topics. National education policy, greenhouse effects, population control, health policy, sending troops to the Middle East were also talked about.

The third and second parliament held discussion only on foreign policy while the first parliament held no general discussion.

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