10th JS MPs spent only 1.8pc time in law-making: TIB

Lawmakers spent only 1.8 per cent of entire time in the maiden session of the 10th parliament, elected through January 05 polls, for formulating laws.
They were mostly engaged in praising the ruling party's activities and criticising the BNP-led opposition alliance, a TIB report said.
The findings came up at the 11th edition of the Parliament Watch, a survey launched by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) to assess the role of the MPs and the parliamentary standing committees for ensuring accountability of the public representatives at the highest level.
Revealing the study report at Brac Centre Inn in the capital on Monday, TIB researcher Juliet Rosetti said parliamentarians praised their own parties for 856 times in the first session of the 10th parliament against 251 times recorded in the first session of the 9th legislature.
She said members of the parliament (MPs) were also seen engaged in criticising the activities of the BNP-led opposition alliance for 531 times in the maiden session that lasted for 36 days.
The number was 342 in the same period of the 9th parliament, the report said.
A total of 17 hours and seven minutes were wasted due to quorum crisis which saw drainage of Tk 80 million of public money while an average of 28 minutes was wasted in the first session of the 10th parliament called Jatiya Sangsad (JS).
Citing an example from neighbouring India that eight per cent of time is spent in legislation in both the houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha-, the study says it takes only six minutes in the Bangladesh parliament in placing and passing a bill, while only two public bills were passed in the first session of the 10th parliament.
The study report found that the overall attendance rate of parliamentarians in the first session of the 10th parliament was 64 per cent while the Leader of the House was present at its working sessions for 32 days (89 per cent) and the main opposition leader for 14 days (39 per cent).
The study revealed that participation of businessmen in the parliament increased to 59 per cent in the 10th parliament while it was only 17 per cent in the first parliament of the country.
Speaking on the report launching function, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the opposition party in the 10th parliament could not play its due role in accordance with the expectations probably because of self-identity crisis.
"As the opposition party (Jatiya Party, led by HM Ershad), it is also a part of the ruling alliance. We want to see more active role from them (opposition party) in the coming days by showing moral and political determination," he said.
He said there is also a positive sign that the main opposition has not boycotted any parliamentary working session. "But we could not say the parliament has become an effective one as the key party or alliance that practises the culture of boycott has been absent in the parliament," he added.
TIB trustee board chairperson Sultana Kamal said although the process of making and passing laws for public interest is the main task of the national parliament, only 1.8 per cent of its total time was spent on formulation of laws in the first session of the 10th parliament.
"Parliament is run with public money. So, we want to see the House functioning to formulate laws and to implement those for the interest of people," she said.
Mrs Sultana Kamal said the parliament is being run by a vested quarter. So public interest is always neglected while there is no need for six minutes to pass a bill in the interest of businessmen, she added.
The TIB study put forward 18-point recommendations for both short and long terms aiming to make the parliament effective and accountable and to strengthen democracy.
The recommendations, including fixing the maximum timeframe of continued absence by a lawmaker at 30 days instead of 90 days, awarding the top 10 MPs for their highest attendance, taking steps to enact the 'Code of Conduct of Parliament Members 2010' and passage of a law to stop parliament boycott.
TIB deputy executive director Dr Sumaiya Khair and director ((research and policy) Rafique Hassan were present at the press conference.