Posts and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque yesterday informed the Jatiya Sangsad about the unpaid bills while responding to a question from a lawmaker.

Deputy Speaker Akhtar Hamid and 159 sitting parliament members are on this list of defaulters while some defaulting members of the 7th parliament are now members of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's cabinet.

These 159 defaulters in the present parliament include 30 lawmakers from the main opposition party Awami League (AL), 10 from Jamaat-e-Islami and eight from Jatiya Party (JP-Ershad) while the rest are from the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Twenty of these 159 defaulters are chairmen of various parliamentary standing committees including a former chairmen.

They are advocate Mahbubur Rahman, committee on land ministry (Tk 39,978), Nazim Uddin Alam, committee on environment and forest ministry (Tk 1,25,118), Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul, committee on establishment ministry (Tk 23,346), Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, committee on defence ministry (Tk 7,265), Nurul Islam Moni, committee on science, information and communication ministry (Tk 20,696), Mozammel Haque, committee on fisheries and livestock ministry (Tk 22,942), Justice Mozammel Haque, committee on private members bill and resolution (Tk 33,234), GM Fazlul Haque, committee on posts and telecommunication ministry (Tk 6,133), Mosharraf Hossain, committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts ministry (Tk 1,64,374), Prof Shahidul Islam, committee on cultural affairs ministry (Tk 2,945), Abdul Alim, committee on public undertakings (Tk 4,02,415), Nazir Hossain, committee on expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry (Tk 2,09,244), Helalulzzaman Talukdar, committee on mass education ministry (Tk 346), Mushfiqur Rahman, committee on finance ministry, (Tk 193), Abdul Mannan, committee on agriculture ministry (Tk 20,400), Barrister Ziaur Rahman Khan, committee on foreign ministry (Tk 28,867), MA Matin, committee on water resources ministry (Tk 2,024), Abdus Sobhan, committee on public assurances (Tk 5,035), Mozahar Hossain, committee on women and child affairs ministry (Tk 46,315) and Major (retd) Abdul Mannan, committee on home ministry (former) Tk 22,531.

The defaulter list includes some prominent lawmakers like Abdus Samad Azad (AL, Tk 2,14,405), Anowar Hossain Manju (JP, Tk 23,670), Abdul Jalil (AL, Tk 244), Mohammad Nasim (AL, Tk 3000), Zillur Rahman (AL, Tk 1,445), Abdur Razzak (AL, Tk 13,868), MA Hashem (BNP, Tk 22,270), M Naser Rahman (BNP, Tk 20,400), Syed Shahidul Haque Jamal (whip-BNP, Tk 1,501), Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini (Islami Oikya Jote, Tk 34,206), Ashraf Hossain (whip-BNP, Tk 2,56,702) and Abdus Shahid (opposition chief whip, Tk 32,882).

The 18 defaulting lawmakers of the 7th parliament who became ministers in Khaleda's cabinet are LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan (Tk 13,457), Health Minister Dr Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain (Tk 46,110), Women and Child Affairs Minister Khurshid Jahan Haque (Tk 13,109), Relief and Disaster Management Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yousuf (Tk 23,596), State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman (Tk 2,08,198), Deputy Speaker Akhtar Hamid Siddqui (Tk 2,75,169), State Minister for Finance Shah Mohammad Abul Hussain (Tk 2,79,028), State Minister for Labor and Employment Amanullah Aman (Tk 9,06,678), Science, Information and Communication Technology Minister Dr Abdul Moyen Khan (Tk 65,284), Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain (Tk 3,22,564), State Minister for Education Ehsanul Hoque Milon (Tk 1,16,144), State Minister for Water Resources Goutam Chakraborti (Tk 52,271), State Minister for Housing Alamgir Kabir (Tk 21,271), State Minister for Environment Zafrul Islam Chowdhury (Tk 1,28,075), State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Ukil Abdus Sattar (Tk 2,34,464) and State Minister for Land Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu (Tk, 13,394).

Defaulting lawmakers from the 7th parliament also include Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad (Tk 26,944), Rawshan Ershad (JP, Tk 32,133), KM Obaidur Rahamn (BNP, Tk 2,91,999) and Delawar Hossain Saidee (Jamaat, Tk 5,505).

The breakdown of the total number of defaulting lawmakers and the total amount of defaulted bills is as follows:

Twelve lawmakers from the first parliament (Tk 78,442), 29 from the second (Tk 258979), 57 from the third (Tk 13,11,880), 111 from the fourth (Tk 1,01,25,686), 203 from the fifth (Tk 3,60,24,653), 200 from the seventh (Tk 3,10,30,972) and 159 from the present parliament (Tk 72,65,162).