The third session of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad will commence September 1, two weeks after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she favoured amending the constitution to enable the legislature to remove judges from office.
President Abdul Hamid yesterday convened the third session of parliament.
In order to restore a provision giving parliament the authority to remove judges, contained in the 1972 constitution and later dropped by the Ziaur Rahman regime, the government must place a bill in parliament.
Monday’s cabinet meeting informally discussed the preparation of a bill to restore the original article 96 of the constitution. Law minister Anisul Huq told the cabinet meeting that the bill was being drafted, sources at the meeting said.
“The House will sit at 5pm on September 1,” Speaker of the House Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune Monday.
In line with parliamentary tradition, the highest body of parliament, the Business Advisory Committee, which determines the length of every session of the house, will likely sit the same day to fix the tenure of the third session.
The Business Advisory Committee is headed by the speaker of the house and includes the Leader of the House and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition, the chief whip, senior ministers and members of parliament as members.
The speaker of the house said the upcoming session would likely be of short duration unless emergent issues surfaced.
According to the constitution, the gap between parliamentary sessions cannot exceed sixty days. The last session ended on July 3.
The House sat for 59 days since January.