Poor attendance in JS sessions
The absence of ministers in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) session drew flak from senior lawmakers at a JS sitting on Thursday. We couldn't agree more with those lawmakers for their being vocal on the issue. The ministers, if only for their portfolios, should be particularly attentive to their constitutional responsibility in attending JS sessions. As some senior lawmakers pointed out, they are rather more interested in attending to other businesses than keeping their presence in the JS.
The matter is serious. For it is to the JS that the ministers are answerable for their actions and as such they should ensure their presence there. And the practice should not be otherwise whether the Leader of the House is present in a JS session or not.
Unfortunately for our parliamentary democracy, playing truant in attending parliamentary sessions has virtually become a culture both among the Treasury and the Opposition lawmakers. In the past, the practice of truancy among lawmakers often became so acute that even the necessary quorum could not be met before a JS session might begin. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, too, castigated such indifference of lawmakers towards attending JS sessions.
Of late, the picture has slightly changed for the better, although during the sessions the JS, more often than not, looks sparsely attended. Truancy of the ministers and Treasury Bench lawmakers apart, there is still a bigger threat to parliamentary democracy and that is due to the continuous boycott of JS by the Opposition. The culture of absence and boycott does not only render the JS ineffective, it also poses a big challenge to parliamentary democracy to thrive in politics and society.
Nevertheless, the ultimate responsibility of making the JS functional lies with the lawmakers themselves. To that end, the lawmakers should also be respectful of the constituents who elected them.
The silver lining to the angry outbursts at Thursday's JS session is that the lawmakers themselves are gradually becoming concerned about poor attendance in JS and the need to make it functional.
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