Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar in an inventive move declared names of 21 lawmakers who attended maximum of the 373 workdays in 23 sessions of the House since October 28, 2001 when the current parliament started.

The Speaker declared to reward these lawmakers to encourage others to attend the House regularly as the current parliament has faced severe quorum crisis since the beginning because of absence of the main opposition Awami League (AL).

Despite the ruling alliance's two-thirds majority in the House, the functions of the House were stopped on several occasions due to quorum crisis or absence of 60 lawmakers in the chamber.

The current parliament, which is second to fulfil the five-year tenure, was lucky yesterday to have the main opposition lawmakers on the last workday. The previous parliament did not have that luck.

In her speech concluding the 23rd session of the current parliament, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia termed this completion of tenure "a milestone" for parliamentary democracy.

Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar termed the five years of the House, which expires on October 27, successful and glorious.

Describing the successes of the House, the Speaker said the current parliament has passed 185 bills and held five discussions on various issues.

Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina in her winding-up speech, however, labelled the current parliament as a failure that frustrated countrymen.

"We submitted 2,511 notices for holding discussions on different public problems, but none of our notices were accepted for discussion," Hasina said.

The committee system also failed to deliver properly, Hasina alleged, saying most parliamentary bodies did not hold meetings regularly as per the rules of procedure of the Jatiya Sangsad.

In his final speech, the Speaker, whose neutrality in running the House has been questioned on several occasions, defended the standing committees, saying they "worked tirelessly to ensure accountability and transparency of the government activities".

In reality, however, several parliamentary standing committees have failed to investigate alleged corruption and irregularities in different ministries despite forming dozens of sub-committees.

Besides, the ruling party could not elect a deputy leader of the House in the five-year time of the current parliament.

The parliament lost two AL lawmakers--former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and Ahsanullah Master--as they were killed.

Several opposition lawmakers were also allegedly tortured during the Operation Clean Heart drive and opposition political programmes in the streets at different times.

Perpetrators even launched a grenade attack on Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina.

The House, however, failed to take any step regarding the killing of its lawmakers and law enforcers' atrocities on them.

21 LAWMAKERS
A state minister attended the parliament sessions on maximum days although the whips of the Jatiya Sangsad were supposed to hold that record. Among the seven whips including the chief whip, two however ranked in the list.

Leader of the House Khaleda Zia and Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina were not on the list as Khaleda attended 195 of the 373 workdays while Hasina attended below 50 workdays.

Those who attended the sessions on maximum days are LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Law Minister Moudud Ahmed, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Prof Rezaul Karim, Whip Rezaul Bari Deena, Whip Zahed Ali Chowdhury, Engineer Shamsuddin Ahmed, Abdus Sobhan, Abu Sayeed Mohammad Shahadat Hossain, Abdul Alim, Shamsul Alam Pramanik, Sultan Mahmud Babu, Shah Mohammad Ruhul Quddus, Abdul Khaleq Mondal, Motiur Rahman, Abdul Aziz, Gazi Mohammad Shajahan, M Riasat Ali Biswas, Hafizuddin Ahmed, Mia Golam Parwar, Manjur Quader and Prof Mohammad Younus.

Lawmakers elected to the women's reserved seats attended only 84 workdays of the House.

The Speaker declared names of 11 of the 45 woman lawmakers for attending maximum workdays of the current parliament. They are Tasmin Rana, Hasne Ara Gias Daisy, Rokeya Ahmed Lucky, Advocate Khaleda Panna, Helen Zerin Khan, Sultana Razia, Saimun Begum, Rasheda Begum Hira, Newas Halima, Rezina Islam and Nur-e-Hasna Lily Chowdhury.

The Speaker said he will reward the lawmakers today.