Parliamentary standing committees on different ministries also could not play an effective role in investigating corruption and irregularities in different organisations under the ministries concerned, said a TIB report.

The report titled Parliament Watch is based on proceedings of the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th sessions of the 8th parliament held last year. It was presented at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.

About the opposition, the report said, "An excessive level of walkouts and boycotting of parliament by the main opposition is greatly obstructing the development of our parliamentary culture."

It added, "Awami League lawmakers were absent from parliament for 48 out of 83 days last year."

Establishing an effective parliament is not possible if lack of willingness of the ruling parties, absence of lawmakers from the sessions, abstention or boycott persists, Prof Muzaffer Ahmad, a trustee of the TIB, said at the press conference.

Asked if parliament has become ineffective, he said they would not say this since the House is performing its primary functions enacting 30 laws in the last four sessions. "But there are some other jobs to do to make it more effective and meaningful," he added.

TIB Trustee M Hafizuddin Khan and executive director Iftekhar Zaman were also present at the press conference while research officer Abdul Alim presented the report.

Talking to newsmen, Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar however rejected the TIB report saying, "It is a guess work and not based on facts."

On quorum crisis, Sircar said unless any member draws his attention to it, he can run parliament despite such crisis. To substantiate his contention, he read out the constitutional provisions.

MAIN OPPOSITION CRITICISED

Criticising excessive boycotts and walkouts from parliament, the TIB report said opposition members often used the speaker's decisions not to let them speak as excuses to absent themselves from House sessions.

They suggested that one day in every 15 days should be set aside to debate issues raised by opposition members.

QUORUM CRISIS

On quorum crisis in parliament, TIB came up with suggestions to enact laws to resolve this, if necessary, besides other steps.

It said that of the Tk 22.11 crore spent to run the four sessions of the House last year, more than Tk 5 crore was wasted due to quorum crises alone.

The four sessions witnessed severe quorum (presence of at least 60 lawmakers in the House) crisis almost every day.

JS BODIES

Quoting the Rules of Procedure of the JS, the TIB report said that despite an obligation to sit at least once a month, most of the parliamentary standing committees did not sit regularly from January to August 2004.

During the period, only the committee on law ministry held 10 meetings, eight committees did not meet , while six others sat only once.

To strengthen the committee system, the TIB recommended appointing 50 per cent heads of the parliamentary bodies from among the opposition lawmakers. It also suggested amending rules to ensure that the bodies sit twice a month.

KEY POINTS

The report said each word spoken in parliament costs Tk 100. Unscheduled discussions ate up 8.5 per cent of total session time, and of this, 76.3 per cent was on political situation.

The four sessions witnessed submission of 491 adjournment motions but not any of those was discussed.

Prime Minister's question-answer session, boycotted by the main opposition, was not held on 32 per cent of the scheduled days or questions were just tabled. Ninety percent questions were from treasury bench lawmakers, the report said.