The last session of the Awami League-led ninth parliament starts on September 12 leaving the opposition’s demand for restoration of the caretaker government to the constitution unsettled.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP’s acting secretary general, Saturday warned of street confrontations in case the government did not arrive at a compromise with the opposition’s demand.
Amendment to the constitution by an elected parliament is a must for reintroduction of the non-party caretaker government in the charter.
There will be no scope of changes to the constitution after October 25 when the president is set to dissolve parliament.
To start the 19th session of the parliament on September 12, the parliament secretariat has already sent file to President Abdul Hamid who convenes the Jatiya Sangsad according to the suggestion of the leader of the house in line with the constitution.
The upcoming session is likely to go for five to six working days and restart in the third week of October after a long adjournment in the middle and continue up to October 23 or 24, Chief Whip Abdus Shahid told the Dhaka Tribune.
The constitution stipulates that the parliament will exist for five years since its first sitting. Although the 9th parliament had its first sitting on January 25, 2009 but the charter instructs to dissolve the parliament 90 days ahead so that the Election Commission can hold the 10th general elections within the 90 days to maintain constitutionality.
A new elected government must take office by January 25 next year.
According to the announcement of Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina, the current parliament will be dissolved on October 25, 90 days ahead of the mandated five years.
“We have proposed starting the 19th session on September 19. It will hold six to seven sittings unless serious issues come to the fore,” Abdus Shahid told the Dhaka Tribune Saturday.
But he said the premier and the business advisory committee would take the final decision on the tenure of the next session.
Shahid said the ruling party had no plan to table a bill for restoration of the caretaker government to the constitution.
“Let them come to the House and place their demand,” he added.
Zainul Abdin Farroque on Friday made it clear that his party had no plan to place the caretaker demand in the parliament. The opposition leaders say the BNP is set to join the upcoming session to “unmask” the government ahead of the national elections.
“I will convey the message to the party high-ups in the parliament’s next session,” Farroque told the Dhaka Tribune.
The BNP has poor presence in the parliament as the main opposition preferred longer boycotts of the House alleging “bad atmosphere” in the assembly.
Of the total 394 working days in the last 18 sessions, the highest presence of the BNP lawmakers was 75.
Leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia attended only 10 sittings mainly to save.