A senior lawmaker of Ershad’s Jatiya Party yesterday resented the fact that his party was not the “true opposition.”
People’s perception of the JaPa is very bad as the electorate do not rate it as the true opposition in parliament, said Kazi Feroz Rashid in an unscheduled discussion that started minutes after the House started its business at 5:05pm.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the session.
He demanded that the JaPa be given the responsibilities of some heads of the parliamentary standing committee.
Kazi Feroz Rashid said the result of the recently-held upazila was a testimony to people’s perception of the government-JaPa relation.
“It is regrettable that the JaPa is not given any post of chiefs of the standing committee. We cannot show our face outside,” he said.
He lamented the fact that he was the ninth member of a standing committee while he was telecom minister 25 years ago.
He said the JaPa would extend all out support to the government on some basic issues. “We will praise all good actions of the government and criticise the bad decisions.”
Rustom Ali Farazi, an independent MP and former JaPa lawmaker, then took the floor in another unscheduled slot. He also echoed the view of Firoz.
SM Abul Kalam Azad, the lone MP from Bangladesh Nationalist Front, objected to the government decision to give “power corridor” to India which refused Bangladesh the due share of the Teesta river.
“It is not acceptable that we are to meet the demands of India one after another but never get our due share of waters,” he said.