Bangladesh News

Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina yesterday spoke against more front-row seats in parliament for BNP.

Hasina’s thoughts on the issue was revealed in a meeting of AL’s central working committee where two AL presidium members requested her to reconsider and give one or two more seats to BNP to avoid a “meaningless” row over where the opposition lawmakers sit in parliament, party sources said.

Leaders who attended the central working committee meeting told The Daily Star that Tofail Ahmed and Kazi Zafarullah told Hasina that the people would be happier and unnecessary debate would stop if the government considered giving BNP more seats in the front row.

Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina told them that all BNP “personalities” have seats in the front row and they would have been given more if they had stalwarts like M Saifur Rahman.

She also pointed out that the last BNP-Jamaat alliance government did not even give assassinated former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and deceased education minister AHSK Sadeque front-row seats.

Sources said Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury backed Hasina in the meeting.

However, Chief Whip Abdus Shahid yesterday said the seating plan in the House would be redone in the next session to bring the opposition MPs back to Sangsad.

He hoped the opposition would join the parliament in the current session so that the seat-rearrangement process could be simplified.

Meanwhile, BNP said they want to return to parliament if this issue is settled.

“We want to join the parliament but the speaker will have to take the initiative in this regard,” BNP spokesperson Nazrul Islam Khan told reporters after a party meeting at BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office last night.

He also said it was not decent of the newly-elected speaker to change the seats given to them by former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar.

Talking to reporters at his parliament office, the chief whip, however, said, “BNP should join this session as the issue of seats will be resolved in the next session.” He apprehended that the redoing of the seating plan might be difficult if the BNP does not join the House proceedings this session.

The House yesterday witnessed a brief and unilateral “debate” over seating plan in parliament in protest of which the BNP-led opposition boycotted parliament proceedings.

Participating in the debate, grand alliance lawmakers blasted former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar for creating the problem by unilaterally allocating all the front-row to his left to opposition lawmakers.

They also criticised the BNP-led opposition for boycotting the House and urged them to return.

BNP was present on the inaugural day of the new parliament and they walked out in the end to boycott the speech of President Iajuddin Ahmed for his alleged breach of oath.

BNP lawmakers and their three allies staged a second walkout on January 28 protesting against the new seating plan of the front row that overturned Sircar’s arrangement.

The new Speaker of the House Abdul Hamid gave the main opposition party four front-row seats, which prompted them to stage the walkout.

Since then the BNP has been saying that they would not join parliament proceedings until the speaker decides on their demand for three more seats in the front row.

The treasury bench outright rejected the opposition demand.