LAWMAKERS in the 10th Parliament spent little time on the lawmaking process as 71 percent of the bills were passed within one to 30 minutes. Besides, the country had to waste more than Tk 163 crore due to quorum crisis in the 10th Parliament from January 2014 to October last year, the TIB said in its Parliament Watch report released on Wednesday.
The MPs spent 16 percent of the 69 hours of unscheduled discussions on criticising political rivals and civil society members, using offensive, abusive and vulgar expressions. This was done in violation of the rules of procedure of Parliament as the persons in question were not present in the House, mentioned the report. The lawmakers also spent 10 percent of the allocated time for unscheduled discussions in praising the government and the head of the government, it pointed out.
In the 10th Parliament, only 94 of the 350 lawmakers participated in the lawmaking process, taking about 31 minutes on average to pass a bill. It was about 12 minutes in the Ninth Parliament and 20 minutes in the Eighth Parliament, the report said. In comparison the House of Lords in the UK spent 48 percent of the total discussion time on enacting laws in 2017-18 and the Indian Lok Sabha 32 percent in 2014-19.
Certain trends are also worrying. The number of businessmen-turned-MPs is on the rise. In the 10th Parliament, it was 59 percent compared to 18 percent in the first Parliament. Only two standing committees — one on public accounts and the other on the Shipping Ministry — held at least one meeting a month. Besides, members of eight standing committees had conflict of interest with their respective committees. Two parliamentary bodies — one on the rules of procedure and the other on privileges, didn’t hold any meeting during the period.
In a parliament where there is no effective opposition party, such a state of affairs is likely to exist. There is hardly any opportunity for holding the government accountable in the 10th Parliament as there is no real opposition party in the House. As a result this Parliament has failed to meet public expectations, especially in terms of its mandate to ensure accountability of the government.
