Businesspeople dominate reserved seats as well: Shujan

Like the lawmakers in general seats, businesspeople also dominate the list of reserved seat MPs in the 12th National Parliament.

Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) revealed the information at a virtual press conference held yesterday after analysing the information given in the affidavits of 50 lawmakers elected to reserved women's seats.

A total of 13 (26 percent) of the 50 reserved-seat MPs belong to the category of business people.

Apart from this, seven (14 percent) lawmakers are service holders, five (10 percent) are in teaching, five (10 percent) are housewives, two (4 percent) are engaged in the law profession, and two (4 percent) are involved in farming.

Eight (16 percent) reserved lawmakers mentioned their profession as "politics," while the remaining eight (16 percent) are associated with different other professions.

Earlier, after analysing the data of the general seat lawmakers following the January 7 polls, Sujan said 200 out of the 299 MPs are in business, meaning 66.89 percent of the total members of parliament are businesspeople.

As many as 185, or 61.66 percent, of the total parliamentarians of the 11th National Parliament were in business.

INCOME AND EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Only 10 (20 percent) of the 50 MPs elected in reserved women's seats earn Tk 5 lakh or less annually.

Two MPs did not fill out the income section of the affidavits.

Among others, 20 MPs earn from Tk 5 lakh to Tk 25 lakh, 10 earn Tk 25 lakh to Tk 50 lakh, while the income range of five is Tk 50 lakh to Tk 1 crore.

Two AL lawmakers -- Shammi Ahmed (Tk 1.36 crore) and Aparajita Haque (Tk 1.36 crore) -- earn over Tk 1 crore annually.

Of the two JP lawmakers, one has an annual income of less than Tk 5 lakh, and the other earns more than Tk 50 lakh.

Regarding educational qualifications, Shujan said 60 percent of the candidates are post-graduates [two having PhD degrees], while 16 percent obtained honours, eight percent got HSC, 10 percent passed SSC, and six percent have educational qualifications less than SSC.

Speaking at the event, Shujan Secretary Badiul Alam Majumder said reserved seats are important for women's political empowerment, but there is a question of how much empowerment of women is actually taking place.

"If the political empowerment of women were done through women's seats in the true sense, women would have been elected from general seats later. In most cases, qualification is not the main consideration for the nomination of reserved seats for women. The nominations were given as favours," he said.