The ruling Awami League in its manifesto unveiled yesterday for the January 5 elections has dropped its previous promise of submitting wealth statements of the lawmakers and the ministers.
It promised to formulate rules for making the collective and personal activities of the MPs accountable to the people inside and outside parliament.
In the 2008 polls manifesto, Sheikh Hasina said her cabinet colleagues and the MPs would submit wealth statements as part of the government’s initiative to ensure transparency. But the promise was not materialised during the last five years.
Besides this, the Awami League government did not pass a private-member bill, which Saber Hossain Chowdhury initiated for the regulation of the MPs behaviour inside and outside parliament.
The Awami League lawmaker proposed forming an all-party parliamentary committee to oversee and censure the misuse of authority of the legislators and debar them from getting involved with the conflict-of-interests.
As a private member, Saber on January 14, 2010 tabled the “The Code of Conduct of the MPs Bill 2010” containing the provision of the ethic committee. The parliamentary watchdog concerned unanimously requested the House to pass the bill charting out seven guidelines for the MPs in discharging their duties.
In the bill, the lawmaker said he had placed the bill with the spirit of self-regulation of the MPs who make laws for the regulation of others.
“The all-party ethics committee will discuss any reported behaviours of the MPs [either published in media or on receiving complaint from people] perceived to be misconducts, and recommend to the House whether these are against the rule of law or unethical,” he said.
The former minister said the ethics committee’s report would influence the public opinion before elections that came after every five years.
“MPs facing censure from the ethics committee and the House will definitely face public criticism when they seek re-election,” said Saber who sent a notice to the speaker for the passage of the law.
Explaining the conflict of interests, he had told the Dhaka Tribune: “If I am a shipping businessman, I must declare in the House that I have interest in the matter. But I am forced to raise the matter for the greater sake of the people. Thus, transparency of the lawmakers comes.”
Conflict of interests
The current parliament has many MPs who have members of the parliamentary standing committees on ministries in which they have interests, in violation of the Rules of Procedure.
For instance, a shipping trader, Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury, also a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on shipping ministry.
Awami League’s businessman MP Abul Kashem, whose brother is a leading businessman in Chittagong, is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry. Another businessman Sk Afil Uddin is the member of the committee.
AHM Mustafa Kamal, having interest in the capital market and other financial institutes, is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry.
Tajul Islam, a director of Jamuna Bank, is also a member of the same standing committee. He has been heading a parliamentary sub-committee on the performance of the state-owned banks.