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| Bangladesh |
| BNP walks out of Sangsad twice |
| 2013-06-06 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] BNP-led opposition politicians staged two walk-outs of the House yesterday protesting the remarks by two ministers on late president Ziaur Rahman and his elder son Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... They walked out first during the question hour session protesting Jute and Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui's abusive remarks about Ziaur Rahman's "destroying jute mills." The opposition politicians returned to the House after an hour. They staged the second walk-out around 9:00pm protesting the Speaker's refusal to give them the floor again to counter Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's remarks on BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman. The foreign minister on Tuesday said Tarique is "not a politician, but a runaway." The opposition members did not return to the House after the second walk-out yesterday. In response to a question on jute industries, Siddiqui said: "The way military autocrat Ziaur Rahman destroyed the country's politics by grabbing the state power, the same way he had destroyed the jute mills by de-nationalising them." Incensed at the statement, BNP politicians started shouting. Some of them stood on their feet and threw files from their desks. At one point, Moudud Ahmed took the floor and said the minister should not speak irrelevant. While answering another question, Siddiqui blasted Moudud saying that he (Moudud) would not be a politician had there been no military takeover in the country. As the minister continued the assault on Moudud, the opposition MPs walked out of parliament. SECOND WALK-OUT Taking the floor on point of order, BNP politician Asifa Ashrafi Papia started speaking on Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's comment on Tarique Rahman. But the Speaker switched off her microphone on the ground that the issue can not be discussed on a point of order. Protesting the incident, opposition politicians walked out of the House again. BNP TO BOYCOTT BUDGET SPEECH The BNP-led opposition politicians will boycott the parliamentary sitting as Finance Minister AMA Muhith will be placing the budget for the next fiscal year today. Seeking anonymity, a senior BNP politician said, "We will boycott the House tomorrow [today] to maintain the culture of boycott." In the last parliament, he noted, the opposition Awami League MPs had boycotted almost all the budget speeches of the BNP-led government's finance minister. "So, we are following them." The BNP Parliamentary Party at a meeting on Monday reached the decision, he mentioned. Another BNP politician Abdul Momin Talukder, however, said they will boycott the House today as part of their strategy. Several opposition MPs said they would return to the House to discuss the proposed budget. The opposition politicians returned to parliament on Monday after a year-long boycott. They have already set a record by boycotting four consecutive budget sessions of the current parliament. Since the restoration of the parliamentary democracy in 1991, none of the previous parliaments had such an unpleasant instance. The eighth parliament, constituted in October 2001, had passed all but the last budget with the then AL-led opposition politicians in the House. The politicians, though, had discussed the proposed budgets in the House, said officials in parliament secretariat. The fifth parliament, constituted in 1991 following the ouster of military ruler HM Ershad, had passed three of five budgets with the opposition AL-led MPs in the House. The opposition politicians had boycotted parliament during the last two budget sessions of that parliament demanding introduction of the caretaker government system. The seventh parliament, constituted through elections in June 1996, had passed four national budgets between 1996 and 1999 with the BNP-led opposition politicians in the House. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... the seventh parliament had to pass its two last budgets in absence of the opposition. |
| Posted by:Fred |