96 ordinances come to a full stop
Ninety six of the ordinances promulgated just before and during the immediate past caretaker government are null and void this morning as the parliament neither ratified those nor did it get them as bills for ratification by yesterday.
A parliamentary special committee in a report earlier recommended 54 of the 122 ordinances promulgated since the last sitting of the last parliament, about a half of which are also among the now-defunct laws.
The Right to Information Ordinance, Human Rights Commission Ordinance, three separate ordinances which turned Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, and Dhaka Electricity Authority into public limited companies from government agencies, two ordinances for ensuring separation of the judiciary from the executive branch of the government, and Consumer Rights Protection Ordinance are among the automatically nullified ordinances.
Prime Minister also the Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina however said her cabinet will consider each of the automatically nullified ordinances, and have them placed as fresh bills in the parliament, to make into laws those which will embody public interest.
"The ministries concerned will place fresh bills in the parliament on the ordinances, if they think those are related to public interest," the premier said assuring parliamentarians and observers that there is no reason for worrying about the expiration of the ordinances' effectiveness.
"The bills will be passed with retrospective effect," she added.
The parliament ratified only 23 ordinances so far, by passing 16 bills, and also placed three more bills to keep the same number of ordinances enforced.
According to the constitution, the timeframe for ratifying the ordinances or for keeping their enforcement continued, by passing of bills by the parliament, expired yesterday.
According to the prime minister's announcement, fresh bills are supposed to be placed in the parliament to make them into laws with retrospective effect from the dates of the promulgations of the ordinances.
Meanwhile, BNP-led opposition coalition lawmakers staged two walkouts yesterday in protest at treasury bench's 'intransigence to follow the rules of procedure of Jatiya Sangsad in placing and passing the bills'. They described the followed procedure as 'abnormal'.
The second walkout of the opposition lawmakers around 8:00pm prompted the prime minister to take the floor in a bid to clear the air about the fate of the automatically nullified ordinances.
The prime minister also blasted the opposition lawmakers for staging the walkouts and blamed them for the immediate past state of emergency.
"Their repression, killings, greed for power, violations of the constitution led the country to the emergency," Hasina said adding, "Their friendship has always been with the martial law, which does not have any constitutional authority."
Referring to the opposition lawmakers' contrariety to passing the money laundering prevention bill, the prime minister said they opposed the bill since they are involved in money laundering.
Bangladesh Flag Vessels (protection) (amendment) Bill 2009, and Money Loan Court Bill 2009 were first placed in the parliament yesterday and then sent to parliamentary standing committees on respective ministries for scrutiny.
Another bill seeking ratification of the Citizenship (amendment) Ordinance 2008 was placed in the parliament on Thursday, and sent to the parliamentary standing committee on home ministry for scrutiny.
The ordinances ratified so far include Appropriation Ordnance 2007, Appropriation Ordinance 2008, Finance Ordinance 2007, Finance Ordinance 2008, Appropriation (supplementary) Ordinance 2007, Appropriation (supplementary) Ordinance 2008, Electoral Rolls ordinance 2007, Election Commission Secretariat Ordinance 2008, Representation of the People (amendment) Ordinance 2008, Representation of the People (second amendment) Ordinance 2008, Representation of the People (third amendment) Ordinance 2008, the President's (remuneration and privileges) (amendment) Ordinance 2007, Income Tax (amendment) Ordinance 2007, Income Tax (second amendment) Ordinance 2007, Income Tax (amendment) Ordinance 2008, Income Tax (second amendment) Ordinance 2008, Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (amendment) Ordinance 2008, National Board of Revenue (amendment) Ordinance 2008, Money Laundering Prevention Ordinance 2008, Anti-Terrorism Ordinance 2008, Bangladesh Laws (revision and declaration) (amendment) Ordinance 2008.
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