Bangladesh
Parliamentary Session 16th session of Parliament concludes
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, January 28: The National Parliament's 16th and the first winter session of the year has concluded.
The session lasted only five working days due to the rising Corona infection. On Thursday (January 27) night, Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury concluded the sitting of Parliament by reading the President's order. Earlier, a speech of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which he had delivered at a public meeting in India before coming to Bangladesh after being released from a prison in Pakistan following independence, was shown in the Parliament House.
The five-day session began on January 16. According to the rules of the constitution, President Md. Abdul Hamid addressed the parliament on the first day. Later, Chief Whip Nur-i-Alam Chowdhury offered to thank him for his speech. The proposal was adopted unanimously on Thursday night after discussions.
Initially, the plan was to hold the session till mid-February with a few breaks. However, due to the rising Omicron cases, the plan was changed. In the last few days, about 40 MPs and more than 200 officials and employees of the Parliament Secretariat have been infected with the coronavirus.
Apart from the President's speech, the much-discussed law on formation of Election Commission has been passed in this session. After about three hours of discussion, the country's legislature approved the law in parliament on Thursday afternoon. There was a lot of discussion about this law inside and outside the parliament. In the session, 55 MPs including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina discussed the President's address. The discussion lasted for nine hours and 30 minutes.
In this session, the lawmakers asked 52 questions to the Prime Minister. Of which she has answered 20. One thousand 476 questions were submitted before other ministers, and they answered 290.
Usually the first session of the year and the budget session are lengthy. These two sessions are protracted due to the discussion on the motion of thanks brought on the President's speech in the first session of the year and the general discussion on the budget in the budget session.
However, due to the global pandemic, these two sessions have been getting shorter for the last two years.
