AL accuses BNP of making parliament dysfunctional

"The Prime Minister's Office -- not parliament -- has become the centre of all national issues, crippling effective functioning of the House," Suranjit Sen Gupta, AL presidium member, said at a press briefing.

The briefing was held to critique the functioning of "Parliament, Law and the Judiciary" during the first two years of the BNP-led coalition government.

Suranjit said the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami-led coalition has been autocratic in its running of parliament and has not sought opposition participation. "Indeed, [the government] forced the opposition to boycott the House as they do not want to see us there," he added.

On joining the coming session of parliament, the AL leader said, "We did not boycott parliament, nor did we resign." Reiterating his party's three-point demand, the AL leader urged the leader of the house and the speaker to apologise to the AL. Unless the demand is met, "It is not possible on our part to join an ineffective and farcical parliament," he said.

The AL declared an indefinite boycott of parliament on June 26, saying its lawmakers would not return until a state minister apologised for his negative remarks against the leader of the opposition, and the speaker expunged the remarks and upheld the relevant rules of parliament. The AL also urged the speaker and the leader of the house to say sorry before parliament.

Suranjit said, "Neither the speaker nor the leader of the house heeded to our demands and that has led to a standstill in parliament."

"A total of 54 bills have been passed until the seventh session of the current parliament without any discussion," he said, adding that five ordinances were promulgated by the president in the meantime, circumventing parliament. "Bills were even passed without the requisite number of MPs necessary for a quorum," he alleged.

He said the parliamentary standing committees were formed in violation of the rules and without opposition representation.

Suranjit said the House cancelled 345 adjourn motions out of 357 submitted by the AL, 2,580 notices out of 3,668 and 104 public interest notices out of 111. "Such behaviour is nothing but a plan to keep the opposition out of parliament," he contended.

The AL leader demanded the immediate publication of a white paper on expenditures for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) meeting held in Dhaka earlier this month.

"Following newspaper reports about misuse of CPA conference funds, people are suspicious and angry," said Suranjit, adding that everyone should be accountable when it comes to expending public money.

Law and judiciary

At the briefing, former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru said the ruling alliance would separate the judiciary from the executive wing of the government only when its scheme to appoint partisan people to the posts of chief justice down to assistant judges and munsifs would finish.

"They are destroying the judiciary in a planned way and politicising it to cling to power," he said.

Khasru accused incumbent Law Minister Maudud Ahmed of violating the constitution by mentioning the president as head of the government in a booklet published by the law ministry on the occasion of the government's completion of two years in office.

The booklet read the Law and Judiciary Wing of the ministry controls the Supreme Court and appoints chief justice, he said pointing out that it is not true and contrary to the constitution.

Opposition Chief Abdus Shahid and party leaders Obaidul Kader, Shudhangshu Shekhar Halder and Abdul Mannan were also present at the briefing.