Secretary general of the main opposition BNP, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, said Monday that parliament "is not functioning properly". Delwar—whose own party has refused to go to parliament since the start of the year except for a few occasions in the first session because of a seating dispute—was referring to speaker Abdul Hamid's venting of frustration on Sunday at the poor attendance of ministers and senior ruling party MPs in the House.

An angry Hamid had told the House, "I cannot take it easy that ministers and senior MPs on the front row will remain absent." Speaking to reporters Monday at the BNP central office in Naya Paltan, Delwar said, "The speaker's frustration proves that parliament is non-functional." At the same time, he accused the ruling Awami League of "conspiring to make the country non-functional too".

"MPs of the ruling party know they have come to power through a plotted election. So they are more interested in manipulating tenders and standing committee recommendations than going to parliament," the senior opposition leader said. "That is why on Sunday the speaker was forced to draw prime minister Sheikh Hasina's attention to the non-attendance of ruling party MPs."

Asked by reporters about the non-attendance of his own party's MPs, Delwar repeated BNP's demand for a "proper environment" for returning to parliament. "We want to go to parliament. But the environment there is such that the opposition party cannot go. We will go back once a proper environment is created." BNP has not attended the last two consecutive sessions, including the budget session, of the ninth parliament.

-bdnews