JS sessions start without quorum
Staff Correspondent
It has become a regular feature that the speaker starts the day's proceedings in parliament without quorum, thanks to the absence of the main opposition Awami League lawmakers and the treasury bench members' lack of interest. Yesterday, Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar started the day's business 20 minutes behind schedule and without quorum. Only 43 lawmakers were inside the House at that time while it requires the presence of at least 60 members to make a quorum. It needed 10 more minutes to ensure a quorum. Yesterday's sitting could not be started on time as only five lawmakers were present in the House at 4:30pm, the scheduled time to start business. The House witnessed the same scenario on Sunday. Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid told The Daily Star that starting session without quorum is a violation of the constitution. "During my tenure, I never began the proceedings without quorum," the former speaker said. "Entering the House, I used to count the number of lawmakers present and wait until making of a quorum," said Hamid. LGRD and Co-operatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and Agriculture Minister MK Anwar were the only front ranking leaders present when the House started yesterday. Leader of the House and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia entered the House at 5:30pm when there were 85 lawmakers. But after the Magreb break, the session again suffered a quorum crisis and the House sat with 52 members and 15 minutes behind schedule. On Sunday, the House started half an hour late and with 50 lawmakers. On February 10, the parliament session suffered the worst quorum crisis, compelling the speaker to adjourn the House after two abortive attempts to start the sitting. Interestingly, except for the February 10 sitting, no member drew the chair's attention to the prevalent quorum crisis. As per the Rules of Procedure, the speaker adjourns the House for lack of quorum only when a member draws his attention. Against this backdrop, the ruling party attempted to ensure the presence of its lawmakers in the House and convened a meeting of the whips on Sunday, but only three of the seven whips were present at the meeting. Though most of the whips were present in the House yesterday, they failed to bring other lawmakers. Amid the quorum crisis, the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday witnessed a dull day. The question-answer session began with the absence of the member who was scheduled to place the first question.
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