The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, on
Sunday called on people to remain watchful so that none could halt the
democratic process which had been deterred time and again by
extra-constitutional means.
The prime minister while inaugurating a four-day
orientation program for the newly elected lawmakers, lauded the common people
for resisting formation of a king’s party during the two years of the
military-backed government and asked parliament members to work sincerely for
the people’s causes.
She called upon
the opposition lawmakers to join parliamentary proceedings and make parliament
the centre of all activities.
Sheikh Hasina
observed that parliamentary practices had not flourished at its desired level
as a result of recurrent extra-constitutional interventions. Repeated martial law
and state of emergency in the case of last two years had deterred the
democratic process.
The process of
elections was also vitiated because of formation of political parties in the
post-martial law periods and handpicking of certain politicians to have
two-thirds majority in parliament for legitimizing the extra-constitutional
actions, she added.
The United States-based National Democratic Institution
for International Affairs, the United Stares Agency for International Development
and some other organizations arranged the orientation program for 171
first-time MPs of the ninth parliament in association with the parliament
secretariat.
The Jatiya Sangsad speaker, Abdul Hamid, welcomed the
lawmakers and the guests while the Indian Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee
narrated his experience as a parliamentarian at the inaugural session at the
Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
The Indian
speaker advised the new MPs to learn more about delivering in parliament saying
not all the people should necessarily have expertise in every subject. A
lawmaker does not need to speak on every issue, rather he should be
subject-specific.
He also advised
his Bangladeshi counterpart to introduce groups of lawmakers on women affairs,
children affairs, climate change and water conservation.
