The lawmakers of the immediate past ninth and the current 10th parliaments are yet to get their salaries and allowances owing to the constitutional complications the authorities have been facing, officials say.
The parliament authorities are in dilemma over taking the decision as to whether the current legislature started functioning on January 9 or January 25.
As per Article 123 of the constitution, MPs of the 10th parliament “must not assume office” before the expiry of the previous ninth legislature that was supposed to end on January 24, 2014.
But, Article 148 stipulates that MPs will be deemed to have assumed office as soon as they take oath.
The MPs elected in the January 5 general polls took oath on January 9 with the 9th parliament dissolving before its five-year term that would end on January 24 and functioning of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad.
In such case, the parliament authorities or the election commission are likely to face the charge of violation of Article 123 that opposes swearing-in of the MPs of the 10th legislature until the expiry of the previous JS.
Again, if the MPs of the ninth parliament are given salaries up to January 24, the two parliaments would exist at the same time — another violation of the constitution.
“We cannot pay salaries and allowances to the honourable MPs due to some probable constitutional complexities,” Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, now in charge of the speaker, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said the question was raised at the beginning of the current parliament and dissolution of the previous parliament.
Rabbi said there was no scope to provide salaries to the two sets of MPs at the same time. “I have recommended that the speaker give the 10th parliament MPs salaries from January 25,” he said.
On the question of charter violation, the deputy speaker said, “You have to compromise at one point.”
ASM Feroz, the chief whip, said the issue would be settled after Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury returns home from Geneva on March 22.
“We sent the proposal to the speaker in January for approval to pay the salaries and allowances to the MPs of the ninth and 10th parliaments. But, she (the speaker) is yet to take decision in this regard,” Ashraful Maqbul, the parliament secretary, said adding that many MPs were visiting his office, demanding salaries and allowances.