Row over seating arrangement: Opposition stays away from JS session

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday demanded three more frontline seats in the house for ending their ongoing walkout of the inaugural session of the Jatiya Sangsad.

The BNP and its allies Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) have also been staying away from the house since Wednesday’s walkout over the rearrangement of seats by the Speaker Advocate Abdul Hamid.

The demand of the opposition BNP was made when a parliamentary delegation of the party led by senior MP MK Anwar met the Speaker Advocate Adbul Hamid.

After the meeting the Speaker told the journalists that he had already conveyed the demand of the BNP to Awami League’ s Chief Sheikh Hasina and Chief Whip of the parliament Abdus Shahid.

“The BNP demands three more seats in the front row as a condition to return to ongoing parliament session,” Hamid added. Asked whether the BNP would resort to permanent boycott, the Speaker said, ” They (BNP) did not give any threat on permanent boycott of the parliament”.

He said he would take consent of the ruling party and allocate seats if the ruling party allowed. ” Without the sacrifice of Awami League I can do nothing,” he noted.

Chief Whip Shahid said BNP should get three out of the total 29 seats on the front benches. Asked on BNP’s position MK Anwar said, “We are still holding our position. Now, it is up to the speaker to decide the matter”.

However, the BNP leader did not disclose any details of their meeting with the Speaker.

He said that they would not return to the House before resolving the issue.

But the Chief Whip of the opposition Joynal Abedin Faruk yesterday hinted that they would take decision on Sunday at the parliamentary meeting of the party.

Earlier BNP staged a walkout as parliament resumed on Wednesday, protesting a new seat arrangement by Speaker Abdul Hamid that reduced the main opposition party just four front row seats from the nine allocated by outgoing speaker Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar.

But the Awami League has opposed former speaker’s seat arrangement terming it disproportionate to the total number of seats won by the opposition.

Source: The New Nation