Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would not get any more seats in the front row in parliament.

‘The BNP was given five front-row seats though it deserved only three. The speaker allocated the party five front seats so no more seats should be given to them,’ Hasina was quoted by a lawmaker as saying at a meeting of the Awami League Parliamentary Party.

Lawmakers belonging to the opposition bench led by the BNP abstained from parliamentary proceedings on the first day of the budget session that began on Thursday, apparently being dissatisfied with the seating arrangement in the house.

Hasina asked the AL’s lawmakers to play a responsible role in parliament, saying that their performance would be taken into consideration for nomination in the next parliamentary polls.

She also asked the MPs to attend parliamentary sessions on time to keep the house vibrant and prevent quorum crisis.

Hasina, also the Leader of the House, asked questions about relief operations in the cyclone-stricken coastal districts. Lawmakers of the affected areas described the agonies of the affected people and listed their needs.

Many lawmakers from the affected areas expressed disappointment over the role of the local union parishad chairmen and urged the prime minister to declare the posts vacant as the tenure of the chairmen had expired.

They were also disappointed at not receiving relief at the right time in many affected areas.

Most of the AL lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction over the role of the private secretaries and assistant private secretaries of the ministers and state ministers, said inside sources.

They alleged that the AL members were not being given government jobs though the party was now in power.

Hasina reminded them that the party’s activists must pass the written examination before getting any jobs, said sources.

The AL’s organising secretary, Abdul Mannan, questioned the propriety of the behaviour of the state minister for home affairs in the last four days, and claimed that he had damaged the image of the government.

The prime minister, however, did not make any comment on Mannan’s remarks, said meeting sources.

Mannan also accused four senior ministers of talking too much and thus tarnishing the government’s image. He requested the party’s authorities to take appropriate measures against them.

The premier trashed Mannan’s accusation, saying that ministers were doing well but a section of the media, which is lenient to opposition parties, has been trying to trap them in a planned way into making indiscreet remarks, said a meeting source.

Chief whip of parliament Abdus Shahid, after emerging from the meeting, said the prime minister had requested her parliamentary colleagues to be attentive in the parliamentary sessions.

At the meeting one minute of silence was observed in honour of the late nuclear scientist, Dr Wazed Miah, husband of the PM, and the meeting adopted a condolence motion.