BNP will Attend opening session: Sircar

Dhaka, Jan 24 (bdnews24.com) – Outgoing speaker Jamiruddin Sircar on Saturday said BNP chief Khaleda Zia and her party MPs would attend the maiden session of the parliament on Sunday. "Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia has agreed to attend the parliament on the first day and continue to do so unless any discourtesy is shown to her and her party members," said Sircar after speaking to Khaleda about her party's joining the opening session. "And unless the constitution and the rules of procedure are not violated," he told bdnews24.com at his office, just a day before his departure from office. Sircar, the longest-serving speaker in the country's history, would be out of office on Sunday with the election of a new speaker. He failed to win the Panchagarh-1 seat on the BNP ticket in the Dec. 29 general elections. He added the main opposition would not boycott parliament if the new speaker or the treasury bench did not violate the constitution and rules of procedure of parliament. Citing rules of procedure, the speaker on Saturday afternoon overrode the government whips' decision on seat arrangements ahead of the inaugural sitting of the new parliament. BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury earlier hinted that the BNP might not join the opening session if the main opposition was not given seats in the front row in the opposition bench. The treasury bench wanted to allocate three out of 10 frontline seats of the opposition bench to the left of the speaker. The Awami League had accused Sircar of partisan attitude in running the eighth parliament. The outgoing speaker said he made the seat arrangements, which paved the way for BNP's joining the inaugural session on Sunday, as per the rules of procedure and the practices followed in the British parliament, Indian Lok Sabha and the West Bengal's provincial legislature. "I have made the seat arrangement to make the parliament effective," said Sircar who would be active in BNP's politics from Sunday. Taking oath as the speaker on Oct. 28, 2001, he was supposed to serve as speaker for more than five years and three months. But the prolonged tenure of the caretaker government gave him the opportunity to serve for two more years. He earlier told bdnews24.com he might run in the by-election in a Bogra seat if Khaleda, the BNP chief, 'insisted'. Khaleda vacated Bogra-6 and 7 constituencies and took oath as an MP from a Feni seat.