JS in quorum crisis

The Jatiya Sangsad continued to offer a dismal look until yesterday with lawmakers of the major opposition parties keeping off the house and those of the ruling party apparently losing interest in the monotonous proceedings of the house.

Lack of quorum in the House seems to be turning out to be a chronic problem of the House. The frequent 'lack of quorum' position worsens, especially when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is not in the house.

Unlike on the previous occasions, Hasina, also Leader of the House, was found to be absent from the House for most of the days during the current session. She has so far attended the house on only two of the nine working days, as she was indisposed.

Front ranking ministers have also been following suit. They have been absenting on a larger numbers. Some of them were found absent even on the days they had scheduled businesses concerning their own ministries. The newly appointed ministers also do not appear to be regular in their attendance.

Attendance by other MPs are also becoming thinner with every passing day. Many of them are found absent from the House with the start of the day's business. They, however, begin to leave the house gradually, even after arriving late. Those who stay back also do not appear to be attentive enough to the businesses of the house, other than those they themselves participate in.

Speaker Humayun Rasheed Chowdhury's presence in the current session has also become less frequent. Deputy Speaker Abdul Hamid had run the business of the House on most of the days, but handed over the chair to Panel member Prof Ali Ashraf.

On Saturday the Speaker had to wait for 45 minutes to start the day's business. As pointed out by the Chair on that day, it was due to absence of the Prime Minister that Chair's request for the lawmakers to come on in went unheeded.

The JS Business Advisory Committee (BAC) had decided that the Speaker and the Leader of the House would enter the House right on the schedule. The new tactic worked and the members came on time, at least ensuring the quorum, since boycott of the Opposition MPs worsened the crisis since July last year.

The situation worsened yesterday when the House began its sitting 21 minutes behind the schedule of 9.30am. The delay was not the worst recorded. The House lacked quorum for most of the time during the four-hour proceedings. But the business continued as none brought the issue to the notice of the Chair.

The number of MPs, reduced to 37 at one stage, against the required strength of 60 for quorum.

The otherwise dull business yesterday found a woman MP in the Chair. But the rare instance also failed to generate adequate enthusiasm in the House.

Prof Ethin Rakhaine, a ruling party lawmaker, replaced Prof Ali Ashraf and ran the show for 32 minutes. Rakhaine being in the Chair, the second such practice in the present parliament, seemed to have encouraged the women MPs from reserved quota whose presence was bigger than that of their male colleagues.

Jatiya Party MP Rabeya Bhuiyan briefly chaired the session 18 months ago.

On the private members' day yesterday, two ruling party MPs were substituted by their colleagues in moving their resolutions. So happened in the case of a minister.

Several Treasury Bench members including one senior minister who were listed as a discussant on the President's address to the House were also absent.