In protest at the rearranged seating arrangements, the BNP-led opposition lawmakers yesterday walked out of parliament shortly after the House returned from a two-day recess.
They also accused Speaker Abdul Hamid of partisanship.
“It’s not the ruling party, it’s the speaker who has allotted us only four front-row seats. We are anxious about the future of parliament under him,” BNP leader MK Anwar told reporters after the walkout.
“We are disappointed with the way he conducted himself today. Even though we are a small opposition, he doesn’t seem to tolerate us.
“In the circumstances, it will be tough for us to play a constructive role in parliament.”
After talks between chief whips of the treasury and opposition failed to resolve the row over seat plans Tuesday, the speaker made some changes to the arrangements laid out by his predecessor Jamiruddin Sircar.
He gave the opposition lawmakers eight seats in the first two rows on the left of his chair, down from 21.
Taking the floor to reply to queries from lawmakers, Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina termed the walkout ‘unfortunate’.
“I don’t get the logic behind their walkout,” she said, urging the opposition to return to parliament and contribute to making it vibrant.
About redistribution of seats, the prime minister said the present opposition has been given more than what the one in the last parliament got.
Jamiruddin Sircar, who was elected speaker in the previous parliament from BNP, gave the opposition lawmakers nine seats in the front row and 12 in the next.
His decision on the seating arrangements ignoring the treasury bench proposals annoyed the AL-led ruling alliance as many of their senior lawmakers and even ministers did not get seats in the front and second rows.
The new speaker moved to rearrange the seat plans in discussions with the ruling and opposition parties.
But as neither of them agreed to soften their position, he exercised his discretion under the rules of procedure to reorganise the seating arrangements.
Two ministers–GM Quader and Dilip Barua–and three lawmakers–Rashed Khan Menon, Hasanul Haque Inu and Majibur Rahman–got seats in the front row because of the changes.
The others in that line are Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia and her deputies Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, MK Anwar and Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaykobad, and Oli Ahmed, the lone lawmaker from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Interestingly, the new layout leaves Oli surrounded by ministers and ruling alliance MPs.
In the second row, BNP lawmakers have four seats while their peers in the ruling party have the remaining eight.
Incensed at the latest arrangements, the opposition MPs did not take seats yesterday. As MK Anwar was trying to draw the speaker’s attention, the others were standing in a corner.
On repeated calls from Anwar, the speaker said he would give him the floor once the prime minister’s question-answer session was over.
“I’m requesting you…please sit down. I don’t have the authority to give you the floor at this stage. I’m sure you are well aware of the rules of procedure,” he told Anwar amid clamour from the opposition bench.
As Hamid began the question-answer session, the lawmakers from BNP and allies stormed out of the House.
The opposition members walked out of the inaugural day’s sitting on January 25 to boycott President Iajuddin Ahmed’s address.
BRIEFING
In a press briefing at the opposition leader’s conference room, MK Anwar said they wanted to play a constructive role in parliament.
He said the prime minister herself has said her party would extend all cooperation to the opposition to see them play a positive role. But in practice, the ruling party is behaving the contrary.
The first letdown was the election of deputy speaker, he continued. “They did not even talk to us over election to the post, though they had pledged to have deputy speaker from the opposition.”
Referring to seating arrangements, he said he thinks there’s a parliamentary provision for 10 seats to be earmarked in the left front row for the opposition.
He said AL, which had 58 out of 345 seats in the eighth parliament, was supposed to get 4.8 seats in the front row. But the party was given eight out of 10 front-row seats. The rest two too went to opposition lawmakers.
He added that despite having only 39 lawmakers in 1979, AL got all 10 seats in the front row.
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