Bill in JS to keep reserved women seats for 25 more yrs

The Constitution (17th Amendment) Bill, 2018 was placed in Parliament on Tuesday to keep the 50 parliamentary seats reserved exclusively for women for 25 more years, reports UNB.

Law Minister Anisul Huq placed the bill in the House and it was sent to the respective Parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny. The committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days.

As per the Constitution, Parliament shall consist of 300 members to be elected directly and 50 reserved seats for women to be allotted to parties based on their proportional representation in the House.

There're 50 reserved seats in Parliament at present. But the exiting 10-year tenure of the reserved seats is going to end.

According to the draft bill, the 25-year period of the reserved seats will be counted from the first day of the 11th parliament.

In 2004, the 8th parliament extended the tenure of the reserved seats by another 10 years through a constitutional amendment and it became effective in the 9th parliament, which sat on January 25, 2009.

The 8th parliament increased the number of reserved seats from 30 to 45 while the 9th parliament enhanced it to 50.