Bangladesh News

Discussion on the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2008-09 begins today as the ongoing budget session of Parliament resumes this afternoon amid the speaker’s fresh call for the main opposition to join the House.

Speaker Abdul Hamid yesterday said the House does not become animated without the opposition lawmakers and he becomes very delighted when they attend parliament proceedings.

“After everything, I urge the opposition lawmakers to return to the House and speak in favour of the people and point out faults, if any, of the government and the proposed budget,” the speaker told reporters after attending a workshop held at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

BNP-led opposition lawmakers, who are abstaining from the session over seating arrangement row, will not join parliamentary proceedings today, said opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday over telephone, the opposition chief whip said the BNP Parliamentary Party would sit this week to decide their next course of action in this regard.

The speaker, however, said the seating arrangement in the House might be changed if the opposition joins parliament and voices their demands in the House.

The speaker said the treasury bench and the opposition bench might reach a compromise over the seat row issue once the latter returns to the House. “There is no last word in politics,” observed Hamid.

“I have given them [the opposition] five seats in the front row,” he said, adding, “As speaker of the House I cannot do anything abruptly.”

The supplementary budget is expected to be passed on Tuesday and discussion of the proposed budget will begin on Wednesday, officials at the Parliament Secretariat said.