Place bill on Sunday: Farroque

Place bill on Sunday: Farroque
Dhaka, Mar 16 (bdnews24.com)—The opposition chief whip has asked the government to place a bill in parliament on Sunday to return the caretaker government provision, hinting that the BNP may return to parliament that day.

"We'll decide in our Sunday's meeting about attending parliament sessions. We would like to request the government to place the non-party neutral caretaker government bill in parliament on the same day," Zainul Abdin Farroque said at a discussion on Friday.

He also asked the government not to "push the country towards further uncertainty".

BNP chief Khaleda Zia has called party MPs for a meeting at 4pm on Sunday at her conference room in parliament.

Farroque repeated the allegation that the opposition was not allowed to speak in parliament and the speaker had not accepted any adjournment notice from them in past three years.

He accused the incumbent Awami League-led government of turning parliament into an "ineffective partisan organisation".

Still, he said, the BNP would attend the parliament sessions "to talk about the people's problems".

"Let's see how the government reacts," he added.

The last time the BNP MPs attended a session of parliament was Mar 24 last year. Parliament Secretariat says the opposition leader and her party MPs have now passed 83 session days without attending.

The law says they must return in just seven business days to retain their seats.

The ongoing 12th session had been extended beyond Mar 8 when it was supposed to conclude.

A decision on how long the session would continue will be taken talks after with senior lawmakers on Monday, speaker Abdul Hamid said on Thursday.

Farroque said the government was in its 'last days' and "must accept" the opposition's demand for reviving the caretaker government provision. Otherwise, he warned, the BNP-led 16-party coalition would not take part in the national election.

"We don't want polls like that of 1972-73 and will not take part in such polls like the one held in 2008 under the Moeen Uddin-Fakhruddin government," he reiterated, referring the 2007-8 emergency government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed and backed by army chief Moeen U Ahmed.