|
Background
Any
discussion on the committee system in Bangladesh must
take into account the Constitutional history of the
country because the committee system derives its legal
authority from the Constitution itself. Bangladesh was
fortunate enough to have a written Constitution
immediately after its emergence as a separate state. For
most of the time since then the Constitution of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh, briefly "the
Constitution", which was intermittently suspended
and revived due to promulgation of Martial Laws,
envisaged a presidential form of government where the
President elected directly through an adult franchise
was vested with the executive authority of the Republic.
This form provided for a parliament elected directly and
was vested with all legislative powers and complete with
a committee system similar to the existing one. The
institution of the President was severed from the
Parliament inasmuch as the President could not be a
Member of Parliament at the same time and vice versa and
the power of the President to dissolve the Parliament
whenever he desired made the Parliament subservient to
the President and paved the way for one man autocratic
rule.
The
President was forced to quit office on December 6,1990
in the face of intense movement for establishment of
democracy launched by all the opposition parties. An
accord was signed between them where one of the main
points of consensus was to establish a parliamentary
form of government through necessary constitutional
amendments, which would provide that the President would
be the head of the State without any executive authority
as such. The executive power of the Republic would be
exercised by or on the authority of the Prime Minister
who would be a Member of Parliament elected directly
commanding the confidence of the majority members of the
Parliament. It was strongly believed that this marriage
between the legislature and the executive, where a
representative of the legislature would be the head of
the executive, would once and for all establish the
supremacy of the Parliament, a collective body over the
supremacy of the President, known as 'Parliamentary
Democracy'. The Constitution was accordingly amended in
1991 to establish a parliamentary form of government and
one normally expected that with the increased importance
of the Parliament, the significance of the role of the
committee system, a tool of the Parliament often
described as a 'mini parliament', would increase
substantially, and that there would be increased
reliance by the Parliament as an institution and the MPs
as its representative on the committee system as a
specific and accurate tool to fulfil their
constitutional roles. It is in the backdrop of this
expectation that the realities of the committee system
in Bangladesh would be discussed.
Constitutional
Provisions
Article
76 of the Constitution of Bangladesh provides that
Parliament shall appoint from among its members a Public
Accounts Committee, a Committee of Privileges and such
other standing committees as the Rules of Procedure of
Parliament require and that, in addition, the Parliament
shall appoint other standing committees. The terms of
reference of such committees as have been specified in
the aforesaid Article are to:
·
examine draft Bills and other legislative proposals
·
review the enforcement of laws and propose measures for
such enforcement
·
in relation to any matter referred to it by Parliament
as a matter of public importance, investigate or enquire
into the activities or administration of a Ministry and
require it to furnish through an authorised
representative, relevant information and to answer
questions, orally or in writing.
·
perform any other function assigned to it by Parliament.
Article
76 further provides that Parliament may by law confer on
committees appointed under the said Article the
following powers:
·
enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them
on oath, affirmation or otherwise
·
compelling the production of documents.
Rules
Regulating Committees
Rule
187 to Rule 218 of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament
of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, briefly the
"Rules", provides for general rules regulating
the Committees and Rule 219 to 266 lays down special
provisions relating to particular committees. The Rules
of Procedure of the Parliament has found protection in
Article 75 Clause (1)(a) of the Constitution, which
provides: "the procedure of Parliament shall be
regulated by Rules of Procedure made by it, and until
such rules are made shall be regulated by Rules of
Procedure made by the President"
General
Rules
The
general rules regulating the committees lays down
provisions for appointment, tenure, resignation,
chairmen, quorum, attendance, voting in committees,
sub-committees, sittings of committees, power and
procedure for taking of evidence and calling for
documents, recording of decisions of committees, report,
procedure for conducting business. Rule 217 of the Rules
provides that "Except for matters for which special
provision is made in the rules relating to any
particular committee, the general rules in this Chapter
shall apply to all committees, and in so far as any
provision in the special provisions relating to a
committee is inconsistent with the general rules, the
former rules shall prevail".
Before
I discuss the special provisions in the rules relating
to particular committees, a discussion of some of the
provisions of the General Rules is necessary for better
comprehension of the working of the Committee System in
Bangladesh and for the purposes of the subsequent
analysis and they are:
Rule
188:
(1)
The members of a committee shall be appointed by
Parliament on a motion made by it.
(2)
No member shall be appointed to a committee who has a
personal, pecuniary or direct interest in any matter,
which may be considered by that committee. Nor shall a
member be appointed to a committee if he is not willing
to serve on it. The proposer shall ascertain whether the
member whose name is proposed by him is willing to serve
on that Committee.
Explanation:
For the purpose of this sub-rule the interest of the
Member should be direct, personal or pecuniary and
separately belong to the person whose inclusion in the
committee may be objected to and not in common with the
public in general or with any class or section thereof
or on a matter of State policy.
(3)
Casual vacancies in a committee shall be filled by
appointment by the Parliament on a motion made, and any
member appointed to fill such vacancy shall hold office
for the unexpired portion of the term for which the
member in whose place he is appointed, would have
normally held office.
Rule
189:
(1)
Subject to the provisions of the Constitution in this
behalf, the term of office of a Committee of the House
other than a Select Committee on a Bill or a Special
Committee constituted by the House for a specific
purpose shall be valid during the duration of the
Parliament. Provided that a committee may be
reconstituted by the House, if necessary.
(2)
A committee nominated by the Speaker under these rules
shall, unless other wise specified in the rules
contained in this Chapter, hold office for the period
specified by him or until a new Committee is nominated.
Rule
191:
(1)
The Chairman of a Committee shall, unless designated by
the House, be elected by the Committee from amongst the
members of that Committee. (2) If the Chairman ceases to
be a member of the Committee, remains absent from any
sitting of the Committee or is otherwise unable to
perform his duties, the Committee shall choose another
member to act as Chairman for that sitting.
Rule
193:
If
a member is absent from two or more consecutive sittings
of a committee without the permission of the committee,
a motion may be moved in the House for the discharge of
such member from the committee.
Rule
194:
All
questions at any sitting of a committee shall be
determined by a majority of votes of the members present
and voting.
Rule
199:
The
sittings of a committee shall be held in private.
Rule
201:
All
persons other than members of the committee and officers
of the Parliament Secretariat shall withdraw whenever
the committee is deliberating.
Rule
203:
A
committee shall have power to send for persons, papers
and records: Provided that if any question arises
whether the evidence of a persons or the production of a
document is relevant for the purposes of the Committee,
the question shall be referred to the Speaker whose
decision shall be final. Provided further that
Government may decline to produce a document on the
ground that its disclosure would be prejudicial to the
safety or interest of the State.
Rule
208:
A
committee may, if it thinks fit, make a special report
on any matter that arises or comes to light in the
course of its work which it may consider necessary to
bring to the notice of the House, notwithstanding that
such matter is not directly connected with, or does not
fall within or is not incidental to, its terms of
reference.
Rule
210:
A
committee may, if it thinks fit, make available to
Government any part of its report before presentation to
the House. Such reports shall be treated as confidential
until presented to the House.
Rule
211:
(1)
The report of a committee shall be presented to the
House by the Chairman or in his absence by any members
of the committee.
(2)
In presenting the report the Chairman or in his absence,
the member presenting the report shall, if he makes any
remarks, confine himself to a brief statement of fact,
but there shall be no debate on that statement at this
stage.
Rule
212.
The
Speaker may, on a request being made to him and when the
House is not in session, order the printing, publication
or circulation of a report of a committee although it
has not been presented to the House. In that case the
report shall be presented to the House during its next
session at the first convenient opportunity.
Special
Provisions for Particular Committees
These
provisions provide for the different types of
committees, their constitution and functions which is
briefly stated herein below:
Business
Advisory Committee
The
Business Advisory Committee is nominated by the Speaker
consisting of not more than fifteen members including
the Speaker who shall be the Chairman of the Committee.
The main function of this Committee shall be to
recommend the time allocated for discussion of the stage
or stages of the Government Bills and other business,
which the Speaker may direct to be referred to the
Committee.
Committee
on Private Member's Bills and Resolutions
This
Committee shall be appointed by the House on a motion
made by it consisting of not more than ten members. The
functions of the Committee briefly shall be to:
·
examine every Private Member's Bill seeking to amend the
Constitution before a motion for leave to introduce the
Bills is included in the Orders of the Day
·
examine all Private Members Bill after they are
introduced and before they are taken up for
consideration in the House and classify them according
to their nature, urgency and importance
·
recommend the time that should be allocated for the
discussion of the stage or stages of each Private
Members Bill.
Select
Committees on Bills
The
members of a Select Committee on a Bill shall be
appointed by the House upon a motion that the Bill the
referred to a Select Committee. The member-in-charge of
the Bill shall be a member of the committee and a
Minister who is not a member of the committee may with
the permission of the chairman address the committee. A
member of a Select Committee may propose amendments to
any of the provisions of the Bill. A Select Committee
may hear expert evidence and representatives of special
interests affected by the measure before them. Any
member of the Select Committee may record a minute of
dissent on any of the matters connected with the Bill or
dealt with in the report. The report of the Select
Committee on a Bill together with the minutes of
dissent, if any, shall be presented to the House by the
Chairman or in his absence by any member of the
Committee.
Committee
on Petitions
The
Speaker shall nominate a Committee on Petitions
consisting of not less than ten members provided that a
Minister shall not be appointed or be a member of this
Committee. The Committee shall examine every petition
referred to it under Rule 110 of the Rules and if the
petition complies with these rules, the Committee may
direct circulation of the same and in the absence of
such direction, the Speaker may at any as time direct
that the petition be circulated. The Committee shall
report to the House on specific complaints made in the
petition referred to it and to suggest remedial measures
in a concrete form.
Standing
Committee on Public Accounts
The
Committee shall be appointed by the House and consist of
not more than fifteen members provided that a Minister
shall not be appointed or be a member of the Committee.
The functions of the Committee shall be the examination
of accounts showing the appropriation of the sums
granted by the House for the expenditure of the
Government, the annual finance accounts of the
Government and such other accounts laid before the House
as the Committee may think fit. Upon examination of
irregularities and lapses of Institutions, the Committee
shall report to Parliament with recommendation of
remedial measures. In scrutinising the Appropriation
Accounts of the Government and the report of the
Comptroller and Auditor-General thereon, it shall be the
duty of the Committee to satisfy itself:
·
that the moneys shown in the accounts as having been
disbursed were, legally available for, and applicable to
the service or purpose to which they have been applied
or charged;
·
that the expenditure conforms to the authority which
governs it; and
·
that every re-appropriation has been made in accordance
with the provisions made in this behalf under rules
framed by competent authority.
It
shall also be the duty of the Committee:
·
to examine the statement of accounts showing the income
and expenditure of state corporations, trading and
manufacturing schemes, concerns and projects together
with the balance-sheets and statements of profit and
loss accounts which the President may have required to
be prepared or are prepared under the provisions of the
statutory rules regulating the financing of a particular
corporation, trading or manufacturing scheme or concern
or project and the report of the Comptroller and
Auditor-General thereon;
·
to examine the statement of accounts showing the income
and expenditure of autonomous and semiautonomous bodies,
the audit of which may be conducted by the Comptroller
and Auditor-General of Bangladesh either under the
directions of the President or by a Statute of
Parliament; and
·
to consider the report of the Comptroller and
Auditor-General in cases where the President may have
required him to conduct an audit of any receipts or to
examine the accounts of stores and stocks.
If
any money has been spent on any service during a
financial year in excess of the amount granted by the
House for that purpose, the committee shall examine with
reference to the facts of each case the circumstances
leading to such an excess and make such recommendation
as it may deem fit.
Committee
on Estimates
The
Committee shall be appointed by the House and consist of
not move than ten members provided that a Minister shall
not be appointed or be a member of the Committee. The
functions of the Committee shall be to:
·
report what economies, improvements in organisation,
efficiency or administrative reform, consistent with the
policy underlying the estimates, may be affected;
·
suggest alternative policies in order to bring about
efficiency and economy in administration;
·
examine whether the money is well laid out within the
limits of the policy implied in the estimates; and
·
suggest the form in which the estimates shall be
presented to the House.
The
Committee may continue the examination of the estimates
from time to time throughout the financial year and
report to the House as its examination proceeds. It
shall not be incumbent on the committee to examine the
entire estimates of any one year. The demands for grants
may be finally voted notwithstanding the fact that the
Committee has made no report.
Committee
on Public Undertakings
The
Committee shall be elected by the House and consist of
not more than ten members provided that a Minister shall
not be elected or be a member of the Committee. The
Committee is to be set up for examination of the working
of the public undertakings specified in Schedule IV of
the Rules and the functions of the Committee shall be
to:
·
examine the reports and accounts of the public
undertakings specified in the Schedule IV;
·
examine the reports, if any, of the Comptroller and
Auditor-General on the public undertakings;
·
examine, in the context of the autonomy any deficiency
of the public undertakings, whether the affairs of the
public undertakings are being managed in accordance with
sound business principles and prudent commercial
practices; the Committee shall report to Parliament on
remedy of irregularities and lapses of the public
undertaking and recommend measures to free the
institution from corruption and; if considered
necessary, a part of its report in this respect may be
sent to the Government before the report is placed
before Parliament; and
·
exercise such other functions vested in the Committee on
Public Accounts and the Committee on Estimates in
relation to the public undertakings specified in the
Schedule IV as are not covered above and as may be
allotted to the Committee by the Speaker from time to
time.
Standing
Committee of Privileges
At
its first session the Parliament shall appoint a
Committee of Privileges consisting of not more than ten
members. The Committee shall examine every question
referred to it under Rule 168 and 169 of the Rules and
determine with reference to the facts of each case
whether a breach of privilege is involved and if so, the
nature of the breach, the circumstances leading to it
and make such recommendations as it may deem fit. The
report may also state the procedure to be followed by
the House in giving effect to the recommendations made
by the Committee. After the report has been presented,
the Chairman or any member of the Committee or any other
member may move that the report be taken into
consideration whereupon the Speaker may put the question
to the House.
Committee
on Government Assurances
The
Committee shall be appointed by the House and consist of
not more than eight members. The functions of the
Committee shall be to scrutinise the assurances,
promises, undertaking etc. given by a Minister from time
to time on the floor of the House and to report on:
·
the extent to which such assurances, promises,
undertakings etc have been implemented;
·
where implemented, whether such implementation has taken
place with the minimum time necessary for the purpose.
Standing
Committees on Ministries
Every
Standing Committee on the Ministries shall consist of
not more than ten members including the Chairman who
shall be appointed by the House provided that a Minister
shall not be the Chairman of the Committee. The
Minister-in-Charge or if there is no Minister, the
Minister of State, or if there be no Minister of State,
Deputy Minister of a Ministry, shall be the ex-officio
member of the Committee provided that he is a Member of
Parliament and in case he is not a Member of Parliament
he may remain present in the meeting of the Committee
and take part in the proceedings but shall abstain from
voting. If there be no Minister-in-Charge or Minister of
State or Deputy Minister, the Leader of the House shall
nominate a member of the Cabinet to the concerned
Standing Committee and the provision relating to the
Minister-in-Charge or Minister of State or Deputy
Minister stated in paragraph herein above shall apply mutatis
mutandis. Each such Standing Committee shall meet at
least once in a month and the functions of a Committee
shall be to examine any bill or other matter referred to
it by Parliament, to review the works relating to a
Ministry which falls within its jurisdiction, to inquire
into any activity or irregularity and serious complaint
in respect of the Ministry and to examine if it deems
fit any such other matter as may fall within its
jurisdiction and to make recommendations.
House
Committee
The
House Committee to be nominated by the Speaker shall
consist of not more than twelve members including the
Chairman. The functions of the House Committee shall be
to:
·
deal with all questions relating to residential
accommodation for Members of Parliament.
·
exercise supervision over facilities for accommodation,
food, medical aid and other amenities accorded to
Members in M.P. House in Dhaka. The functions of the
Committee shall be advisory.
Library
Committee
The
Library Committee shall consist of Deputy Speaker and
nine other members from the Parliament nominated by the
Speaker and the Deputy Speaker shall be the ex-officio
Chairman of the Committee. The functions of the
Committee shall be to:
·
consider and advise on such matters concerning Library
as may be referred to it by the Speaker from time to
time.
·
consider suggestion for the improvement of the Library.
·
assist members of Parliament in fully utilising the
services provided by the Library.
Standing
Committee on Rules of Procedure
The
Committee shall be appointed by the House and shall
consist of twelve members including the Chairman and the
Speaker shall be the ex-officio Chairman. The function
of the Committee shall be to consider matters of
procedure and conduct of business in the House and to
recommend any amendments by way of addition alteration,
substitution or repeal to these rules that may be deemed
necessary. The recommendations of the Committee shall be
laid on the Table and within a period of seven days from
the day they are so laid any Member may give notice of
any amendment to such recommendation. The House shall
consider the Report of the Committee and amendments if
proposed thereto and the Rules shall stand amended
accordingly after the same has been adopted by the
House.
Special
Committees
The
Parliament may, by motion, appoint a Special Committee
which shall have such composition and function as may be
specified in the motion.
Analysis
of the Existing System
An
analysis of the existing committee system in order to
identify the perceived needs can be effectively
undertaken once the actual working of the committee
system is discussed in the light of the Constitutional
and legislative provisions stated above. The existing
provisions for the Parliamentary Committees in the Rules
of Procedure would show that the Business Advisory
Committee, the Committee on Private Members Bill and
Resolutions, and the Standing Committee on Rules of
Procedure are primarily concerned with the regulation of
the Business of the House with the Committee on Private
Members Bill and Resolutions and Rules of Procedure
entrusted with some legislative functions.
The
Committee on Public Accounts, Estimates and Public
Undertakings are financial committees with special focus
on ensuring transparency and accountability of the
Government and other public authorities/agencies and
recommending measures for improvement of economy and
efficiency in management. The Committee on Government
Assurances is there to perform review and monitoring
function. The grievances of petitioners reach the House
through the Committee on Petitions. The Standing
Committees on Ministries have both a legislative and an
oversight function. The Standing Committee on Privileges
is exclusively concerned with ensuring that the
privileges to which the Members of Parliament are
entitled under law are not interfered with or denied.
The
Select Committee on Bills has a pure legislative
function. The House Committee and the Library Committee
are domestic committees, which are entrusted with the
responsibility of ensuring and overseeing that necessary
domestic facilities are provided to the Members of
Parliament.
Rule
77 to 80 of the Rules discuss the provision for
referring Bills introduced in the House to Select
Committee or Standing Committees. Although no separate
provision has been made for referring Private Member's
Bills to the Committee on Private Members Bills and
Resolutions, Rule 223 provides that all Private Members
Bills, after they are introduced and they are taken up
for consideration of the House, shall be examined by the
said Committee. According to the existing Rules, the
annual financial statement or the Budget, the
Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill shall not be
referred to any committee.
The
provisions in the Rules of Procedure lays down that some
of the committees would be nominated by the Speaker,
most of them to be appointed by the House and one to be
elected by the House and that the Speaker and the Deputy
Speaker would be the ex-office Chairman of some of the
Committees, and unless designated by the House the
members of the committees would elect the chairman of
most of the committees from amongst the members
following the general provision in Rule 191. The Rules
further provides that a Minister shall not be the
Chairman of the Standing Committee on Ministries and
that Ministers shall not be appointed or be the members
of certain committees including the Financial
Committees.
The
experience of the seventh Parliament showed that the
Ruling Party having a simple majority in the House and
the Speaker having been the nominee of the Ruling Party
it was decided that the political parties represented in
the Parliament would have representation in the
committees proportionate to the number of seats held by
them respectively in the Parliament. But most of the
committees could not be constituted for more than a year
after the commencement of the first sitting of this
Parliament due to a deadlock arising out of the dispute
between the ruling party and the main opposition party
with respect to ascertainment of proportionate
representation. At that stage all the Bills introduced
in the House were sent to a special committee appointed
by the House for that purpose.
Once
the dispute was resolved the committees were constituted
on the basis of proportionate representation and
excepting the Committees which have to have ex-officio
chairmen, the chairmen of the rest of the committees
save two were appointed from the Members of the Ruling
Party and chairmen of two committees were members of
Jatiyo Party which was a part of the Government of
national consensus propagated by the ruling party. At
present forty seven Parliamentary Committees have been
constituted out of which thirty five are Standing
Committees on different Ministries and twelve other
Committees. In so far as nomination of Members to
individual committees by the respective parties in the
Parliament, it was mostly marked by intense lobbying
within the Party for inclusion in Committees which would
serve the personal or the political interest of a
particular member irrespective of his/her experience or
expertise qualifying him to serve such a committee.
Influential members landed up in two or more committees.
Placement
of some of the Members were done on the basis of their
background and expertise, particularly some Members of
the main Opposition Party who were in charge of
different Ministries when their party was in power were
placed in the Standing Committee for the concerned
ministry enabling the Committees to benefit from their
experience. Presently the Members of the Bangladesh
Parliament are entitled to meagre remuneration and
allowances which are inadequate in the context of the
present cost of living and as such most of the Members
are engaged in different vocations and profession to
earn their livelihood. The demand on their time from
their professions/vocations and the constituents has
resulted in poor attendance both in the sittings of the
Parliament and the Committees. As a result many of the
Committees do not have the required sitting once in a
month. Furthermore, whatever role the Members play in
the Committees, time and energy spent is mostly not
effective because of the lack of logistics and research
assistance and facilities particularly when many of them
do not have the expertise for making positive
contribution in the functioning of their respective
committees.
The
Business Advisory Committee, besides the Leader of the
House and the Leader of the Opposition, has as its
members senior Parliamentarians from all parties. The
majority of the members in this Committee being from the
Ruling Party like all other Committees, the Ruling Party
regulates the business of the House particularly with
respect to fixation of time for discussion on bills,
budget, debates etc, selection of issues to be debated
and the duration of each session according to their
comfort and partisan political interests which is
definitely not helping the cause of strengthening
parliamentary democracy.
The
Committee on Petitions, as far as my knowledge goes, has
not reported any specific complaints to the House, nor
has suggested any remedial measure. The Committee headed
by the Speaker has met once or twice so far and no
concrete business has been conducted in those sittings.
The same is true about the Standing Committee on
Privileges. Till now hundreds of notices on questions of
privilege mostly from the opposition members, who are
the main sufferers, have been deposited and the Speaker
has held most of these notices to be inadmissible and
the few that have been referred to the Committee have
not been heard of again.
Although
the Budget, the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill
do not pass through any committee before their passage,
the Committee on Public Accounts, Estimates and Public
Undertakings have a significant role to play to ensure
transparency and accountability of the government and
public undertakings paving the way for administrative
reforms to effect economy and improve efficiency in
management, remedying irregularities and lapses and
uprooting corruption in the public institutions. But in
all the above committees,
being chaired by the Members of the Ruling Party
and comprising of majority members from that party,
there is an extent or limit to which they can
effectively perform a watchdog function as beyond a
limit they would be acting against their own partisan
interest. So for obvious reasons these important
committees, with the exception of the Standing Committee
on Public Accounts, have not been able to produce any
result worth mentioning. The Committee on Public
Accounts has been predominantly performing audit
functions as the highest Audit body and the Committee,
comprised of skilled Parliamentarians who have good
understanding between themselves, has been able to
recover substantial amount of money which otherwise
would have been written off. The Committee has so far
completed auditing the accounts up to early 90s burdened
with backlog and has presented three reports to the
Parliament till 1998.
Moreover
another problem with the functioning of these committees
is that the committee requires voluminous data and
information from the concerned Ministries, Departments,
Undertakings, for presentation to the committees in a
prescribed manner. The government functionaries who are
ever busy with their own jobs are never too keen or
willing to present the necessary information in a great
hurry, which slows down considerably the functioning of
these committees. If the concerned officials want to
avoid furnishing the data/information requested by the
committees, Rule 203 gives them ample opportunity to
play around.
The
domestic committees like the House Committee and the
Library Committee deal mostly with routine business
which concerns Members of both the Ruling and the
Opposition Parties and the recommendation of the
committees are effective to the extent of resources
available for enhancing the welfare of the Members of
the Parliament. Under the existing Constitutional and
legal provisions, the Select Committee, the Committee on
Private Members Bills and Resolutions and the Standing
Committee on the Ministries have been entrusted with
legislative functions and let us now examine how
legislation is presently being undertaken.
After
leave has been granted to introduce a Private Members
Bill, the same is sent to the Committee on Private
Members Bills and Resolutions and the experience in the
seventh Parliament has shown that none of these Bills
have seen the light of the day again. The reason for
this is very simple. All the Private Members Bills so
far presented for introduction by the opposition Members
and many of which answers the need of time have been
killed at inception by the Ruling Party by voting
against their introduction. A Bill proposing an
amendment to the "People's Representation Order,
1972" barring a Servant of the Republic to
participate in any national elections within three years
from the date of their leaving their job, which passed
would have helped in ensuring the neutrality of the
administrative machinery, was not allowed to be
introduced in the House. Similarly a Bill called the
"Central Depository System Bill" for providing
a central depository system for the transactions in the
stock market was introduced in the House by an
Opposition Member and sent to the concerned committee.
Surprisingly another Bill, essentially with the
same title and purpose, was introduced and passed
recently by the Government while the same Bill of the
private Member had been freezing in the cold storage of
the Committee on Private Members Bills and Resolutions
for more than a year. The same fate has been met by
Bills proposing amendments to the Special Powers Act,
1974, Administrative Tribunal Act, the Code of Criminal
Procedure which advocated human rights and aimed at
alleviating the suffering of the common people.
So
far as Government Bills are concerned, as a practice the
Bills are drafted in the individual Ministry, which the
Government thinks is concerned with the Bill. The
Minister-in-Charge of the Ministry presents the Bill for
introduction, the Bill is introduced as a routine
matter, then sent to the standing committee on the
concerned Ministry where the committee comprising of a
Ruling Party majority tampers around with the Bill only
up to a permissible limit not effecting the policy, the
intent or the purpose underlying the Bill. The Bill is
then presented back to the House with the recommendation
of the committee and the opposition Members of the
committee who could not agree and recorded a note of
dissent are allowed a few minutes to ventilate their
opinion. Subsequently the Bill is placed before the
House for consideration which is met by a flood of
amendments proposing that the Bill be circulated for
eliciting public opinion and the proposers are allowed
one or two minutes to speak on their amendments. Then
the motion that the Bill be considered is carried and
again the Bill encounters numerous amendments on the
provisions of the Bill itself where the proposer of the
amendments are allowed two to three minutes, depending
upon the number of amendments, to discuss his
amendment(s) and as the time allowed is too inadequate
to discuss any amendment of legislative nature, the
proposer ends up making a political speech. Subsequently
the Bill is passed by a majority with all the amendments
being rejected save rare exceptions.
From
the above it clearly transpires that under the existing
provisions the legislation being done is not
'legislation by the legislators in the legislature' but
'legislation by the executive through the legislature'.
The Parliament and the Committees are merely used as
'rubber stamp' to give validity to the
policies/decisions/ actions of the Government formulated
through a piece of legislation. This is certainly not
the functioning of 'Parliamentary Democracy'. The
non-consequential role of individual legislators both in
the Parliament and the Committees can be attributed
primarily to a Article 70(1) of the Constitution which
reads as follows: "A person elected as a Member of
Parliament at an election at which he was nominated as a
candidate by a political party shall vacate his seat if
he resigns from that party or votes in Parliament
against that party". Sub Article 1 of Article 70
along with the explanation provided therein and other
sub-articles read with Article 67 ensures that the Prime
Minister, who is the Leader of the Parliamentary Party
of the party which has the majority in the House known
as the Leader of the House, being also the head of the
Executive, has absolute control over both the
Legislature and the Executive. Since administrative
power is yielded through the Executive, the Legislature
is made subservient to the Executive, which is mainly
used to cover the actions of the Executive with the
cloak of legislation and many of these actions are
propelled by personal and political agendas.
This
vesting of unfettered power has further been accentuated
by the provision of Article 65(3) of the Constitution
which lays down that there shall be reserved thirty
seats exclusively for the women Members who shall be
elected according to law by the other 300 Members of
Parliament elected directly. This provision ensures a
simple and comfortable majority for a party who has less
than 150 seats in the direct elections to the 300 seats.
Although
it was expected that with the introduction of the
Parliamentary form of Government the role of the
individual legislators and the committees would be
enhanced significantly but in reality the expectations
did not materialise and we ended up with a Presidential
form of Government in the façade of a Parliamentary
form of Government, 'Parliamentary Autocracy" in
the garb of 'Parliamentary Democracy'. Furthermore many
of Standing Committees on the Ministries even if they
have members with expertise and/or experience in that
particular area do not have anybody with legal
background or familiarity with legislative drafting. And
many times, the Bills presented to the House after
scrutiny by the committee contain latches and lacunas,
which are bound to open a floodgate of litigations and
to a great extent defeat the purpose of the Bill. The
procedure for moving amendments and the practice of
rejecting them in block does not help the cause.
Furthermore
the oversight function of the Standing Committees on the
Ministries does not have the desired level of
effectiveness mainly because the committee comprising of
majority Members from the Ruling Party would not like to
go beyond a certain limit if the monitoring relates to
activities of the Government machinery during their
regime. This is complicated further by the resistance
put up the bureaucracy on matters against their
interest, adopting different techniques of non
co-operation like delaying furnishing of required
data/information. Some of the committees, which comprise
of Members who are homogenous in their attitude and have
aspirations to accomplish something, try their best to
perform effectively in spite of the above constraints.
Another
significant weakness with the functioning of the
existing committee system is that the staff of the
Parliament Secretariat, which provides support to the
committees, are over stretched and ill equipped with
facilities. It is seen that one senior staff is
associated with ten committees at a time, not to speak
of numerous sub-committees. The absence of research
assistance and facilities for the Secretariat Staff, in
addition to their unsustainable workload, make it
difficult on their part to make any positive
contribution to the working of the committees.
Proposed
Recommendations
In
the light of the weaknesses of the existing committee
system in Bangladesh apparent from the above discussion
the following recommendations are proposed:
(1)
Increase the remuneration and allowances of the Members
of Parliament to an extent that would enable them to act
as full time Members of Parliament. Once that is done,
enact a legislation prohibiting a Member of Parliament
to pursue any activity for personal gains.
(2)
In the House each Member of Parliament should be
provided with:
·
Office space with air conditioning
·
Secretariat with computer operator
·
Telephone
·
Computer, Printer with Internet Access and E-Mail
Address
·
Peon/Messenger
·
Photocopying facility
·
TV-Session Broadcast
·
Technical/Research support
(3)
Members should be economically sanctioned for:
·
Not attending sittings of the House
·
Not attending sittings of the committees
·
Conducting himself in a disorderly manner in any sitting
of the House and the Committee
·
Issuing false or incomplete statements on interests or
properties
(4)
Committees may be set up by merging similar issues, as
follows:
·
Finance, Budget and Estimates
·
Public Account and Public Undertakings
·
Business Advisory, and Rules of Procedure
·
Private Members Bills and Resolutions and Petitions
-
Economy (Food & Agriculture, Industry &
Commerce, Communication Railway,
Civil Aviation etc)
·
Social Affairs (Health, Education etc)
·
Cultural Affairs (Cultural and Religious Affairs,
Tourism etc)
·
Natural Resources (Energy, Mineral, Water Resources,
Fisheries & Livestock, etc)
·
Human Resources (Youth, Manpower/Employment etc)
(5)
Set up a comprehensive Domestic Committee to deal with
Broadcasting and Publication of Proceedings, House
Budget and Administration, Library of the Parliament,
Residential and other facilities for the Members.
(6)
Establish six Divisional Affairs Committees for Dhaka,
Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal and Sylhet
comprising primarily of members from the respective
Divisions, The Divisional Affairs Committees, besides
the independent powers to be excercised by them, shall
communicate and report to the main Committees matters
which fall within the jurisdiction of the said
Committees.
(7)
Set up a Committee on Committees. The members of the
Committee shall be the Chairmen of all Committees and
the Leader of the House shall be the Chairman of the
Committee. This would enable the Leader of the House to
have increased interaction with the Legislature and its
activities thereby helping him/her to strike a balance
between the Executive and the Legislature.
(8)
Set up a Committee on Subordinate Legislation to examine
the legality of these legislations and the authority
exercised by the Government functionaries under such
legislation.
(9)
The Government Bills should be sent to Committees
specifically created on an ad hoc basis comprising of
Members with expertise on the area covered by the Bill
and others with legal background and these Committees
shall be dissolved following the discussion on the
Bills.
(10)
Once a Bill is presented to the House for consideration
a motion maybe made for eliciting public opinion and if
the motion is defeated the Bill shall be sent to the
committee set up on ad hoc basis. If the motion is
carried the Bill shall again be presented after
eliciting public opinion and if favourable shall be sent
to the committee set up for the purpose.
(11)
The amendments to any Bill should first be moved in the
committee. The committee shall present the Bill for
consideration by the House incorporating the amendments
accepted by the Committee and shall also list separately
those amendments, which have been rejected but with a
note of dissent and those rejected unanimously.
Thereafter only the name of the proposers of the
amendments, which have been rejected unanimously shall
be read out and the proposers of the amendments, which
have been rejected with a note of dissent shall be
allowed a reasonable time for discussion on the
amendment(s) proposed by them.
(12)
Chairpersons of the committees shall be allocated
proportionately to the seats held by the Parties but the
chairperson of the following Committees shall be a
Member from the Opposition party: Private Members Bills
and Resolutions, Petitions, Privileges, Public Accounts,
Government Assurances and Public Undertakings.
(13)
Chairpersons of the committees should hold office for
one year.
(14)
Committees should sit at least once in a month for a
continuous number of days, which shall not be less than
three and more than seven.
(15)
Committees must present a report to the House at least
once in every six month and two days in each session of
the Parliament shall be reserved for discussion on the
Committee Reports.
(16)
If any Ministry or Department does not implement the
recommendations/measures proposed in the Report of a
Committee within a specified time, the committee shall
report the same to the House and the members after
discussion shall give a decision, which should have a
binding force.
(17)
The committees if they so decide should be able to have
any of their sittings with public attendance and
televised.
(18)
The Chairperson of each committee should have additional
logistic and research facilities.
(19)
On any national issue of great public importance the
House should be able to constitute a Special Enquiry
Committee headed by a Member of the Opposition Party.
The Special Enquiry Committee should have a time limit,
from three to six months so as to avoid artificial
prolonging of the procedure.
(20)
The Budget upon presentation shall be followed by a
general discussion and approved in general terms. The
Budget proposals relating to each individual Ministry
should then be presented to the committees concerned.
The committees after discussing the same and proposing
amendments within the sectorial allocation for
expenditure and for increasing income shall present it
to the House for discussion by the Committee Members
whose amendments have been rejected. After debate and
discussion on the Floor, the proposal for each Ministry
as amended by the committees shall be voted upon. The
Finance Bill should be presented to the Finance
Committee to incorporate any amendment to the Budget
proposal approved by the House and the Finance Bill,
with the amendments, if any, shall be voted on the floor
of the House upon presentation by the Finance Committee
for consideration.
(21)
Members should have the privilege of:
·
Summoning Newspaper Editors in case of extreme criticism
towards their person and publication of false and
fictitious news
·
Requesting ministers to censor and/or sanction
subordinates in cases of clear obstruction in providing
information necessary for their functions.
·
Their case being voted in the House before being
prosecuted or tried for serious offences.
·
Summoning Police Officers to the Committee on Privileges
in case of disregard towards a Member or infringement of
his privileges.
·
Receiving a copy of departmental communication.
·
Disposing of a summary of the Committee Proceedings in
the Parliament Bulletin.
(22)
Provide the Parliament Secretariat with adequate
logistic and research support along with increasing the
number of the staff of the Secretariat.
(23)
Amend Rule 203 of the Rules of Procedure so that the
determination of relevance of any document or
information called for by the Committee is left to the
Committee only.
(24)
Amend Article 70 of the Constitution so that the
restriction imposed on a member regarding voting against
the decision of his/her Party in the House is only
limited to such issues as a no confidence motion against
his Party or the election of the Speaker.
(25)
Replace the existing Article 65(3) of the Constitution
with a provision, which would allow the women to get
elected directly to seats of Parliament maintaining some
kind of quota system for women.
Conclusion
A
lot of blood has been shed in this country for
establishment of democracy. In the past democracy has
been stabbed in the back at the slightest provocation.
From the early eighties to the late nineties the streets
of Bangladesh had been vibrant with agitation by the
masses in their struggle for democracy, at times
resulting in colossal loss to the nation and its
economy. Although constitutionally a Parliament was
functioning at that time, the street not the Parliament
was the focus of all hopes and aspirations of the
people. But even with the establishment of Parliamentary
Democracy in the last eight years, which ensured and
protected the voting right of the people, the Parliament
could not be converted into the centre of all national
activities and the focus of all our hopes and
aspirations as expected and desired. Time and again the
spotlight has shifted from the Parliament to the
streets, from consensus to conflict. Strong doses of
street movement have often been injected in the frail
body of national economy to search for solutions, which
an ineffective Parliament could not offer. True, e path
leading to institutionalisation of democracy is a long
one filled with trial and error but can our newborn
democracy and frail economy bear this experimentation
for long? I like many have my doubts. If that be so,
then time has come where the role of the Parliament and
the committee system ought to be enhanced to such a
degree that the nation shall find solution to all its
problems therein, thereby avoiding the dangerous path
now being treaded which is leaving in its trek only
destruction and devastation. With this in mind I have
proposed the recommendations hoping that this would lead
to establishment of an effective Parliament and a strong
committee system which the Parliament as an institution
and the MPs as its representatives can use as a specific
and accurate tool to fulfil their constitutional roles
and thereby strengthen Parliamentary Democracy.
|
