3 Years of Parliament: 'Friendly' JS in the doldrums

The current parliament has made no deviation from the constitutional provision of going into sessions regularly in the last three years. But its effectiveness still remains in question due mainly to the curious case of the main opposition Jatiya Party that has yet to emerge as real opposition bench.

Unlike the parliamentary session, almost all the 39 parliamentary standing committees on the same number of ministries did not sit regularly, paying no heed to the rules of procedure of Jatiya Sangsad. Most of them failed to perform their overseeing functions effectively.

According to section 248 of the rules of procedure, every parliamentary standing committee on the ministries shall hold at least one meeting every month to investigate or inquire into the activities of the ministries. The constitution also assigns them with the job.

Effectiveness of a parliament depends largely on the functioning of its committee system. The poor functioning of the committees tells the “effectiveness” of the current parliament.

Amid such a situation, the 10th parliament, formed through the January 2014 election held amid a boycott by the BNP-led alliance, steps into four years today.

According to article 72(1) of the constitution, there can be maximum 60 days' gap between the end of a session and the beginning of the next one. Like other parliaments formed since 1991, the current Jatiya Sangsad also followed this constitutional provision properly.

One positive side of the current parliament is bringing an end to pervasive culture of House boycott by the main opposition MPs. Jatiya Party lawmakers attended all the sittings of the current parliament over the last three years.

But the other side of this positive development is not bright. The JP could not emerge as an effective main opposition party in parliament. It is mainly because of its three MPs who were inducted into the cabinet and its chief who was made a special envoy to the prime minister with the status of a minister, according to political analysts.

The main opposition MPs never cast votes against any of the government's bills in the last three years. Neither did they question the activities of the treasury bench. For this, the role of the main opposition has been lauded by the government high-ups on several times.

On many occasions, they echoed the same views of the ruling party MPs and refrained from criticising the government.

Both the treasury and opposition bench MPs together launched verbal attacks on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her party despite their absence in parliament.

For the first time since 1991, the BNP chief and her party were out of parliament. This happened as the BNP boycotted the January 5, 2014, parliamentary election.

In the current session, both the treasury and opposition MPs have been blasting the media for their reports on wrongdoings by some MPs.

Thanks to the “friendly opposition”, the government emerged more powerful as it had full control over the legislature.

In such a parliament, MPs seem to have lost their interest in parliamentary businesses. They were supposed to play effective overseeing roles in the committees alongside in the plenary session.

But after three years, the committee system, a vital parliamentary mechanism to hold the government accountable to the House for its activities, became almost ineffective.

According to the rules of procedure, each of the committee on the ministries was supposed to hold at least 30 meetings in the last three years. But only a few committees held required number of meetings.

The committee on law ministry held 33 meetings, planning 30 and child and women affairs ministry 30 meetings in the last three years, according to information of the parliament secretariat.

Some committees held half of the required meetings. The committee on home ministry held only 14 meetings, the committee on foreign ministry 10, labour and employment 13, science and technology 12 and the committee on local government ministry held only 14 meetings.

Parliament held general discussions around a dozen times in the last three years, according to records of the parliament secretariat.

Of them, five were for congratulating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The House held general discussions twice to congratulate her for achieving the “South South Cooperation Visionary Award” and the “Champions of the Earth” award.

On two other occasions, the House thanked Hasina after Bangladesh was ranked by the World Bank as a middle income country, and for the rise of popularity of her government and the AL, according to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI).

It also thanked the Indian people and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the passage of the Land Boundary Bill in their parliament.

The House, however, did not hold any discussion on adjournment motions placed by two independent MPs -- Rustam Ali Farazi and Haji Mohammad Selim -- on different national issues, including alleged financial anomalies in climate change fund, gas crisis, killing people by hurling petrol bombs, etc, according to information from the parliament secretariat.