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Hon'ble
Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister, Government of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh, Hon'ble Speaker of the
Bangladesh Parliament, My Hon'ble Colleagues in the
Cabinet, Distinguished Members of Parliament from home
and abroad, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Assalamu
Alaikum,
It
is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to address
this conference on Comparative Constitutional Law on the
Parliamentary Committee System and the power of the
Executive in Bangladesh perspective. The very topic of
my keynote paper reminds us the birth and development of
our Constitution. The Constitution of Bangladesh when
begins with the words "We, the people of
Bangladesh, having proclaimed our independence on the
26th day of March, 1971 and through a historic war of
independence", refers to a historical
background of our Constitution. Bangladesh Constitution
is unique in character as stated by former Chief Justice
Badrul Haider Chowdhury who observed, in the famous
Eighth Amendment case that "our Constitution
proceeded from the people and it is not a rhetorical
flourish ... and it is not a product of a negotiated
legal order inherited from the past nor bequeathed by a
foreign power". The Constitution of Bangladesh
owes its origin to the Proclamation of Independence
dated 10th April 1971, which reflected the aspiration of
our people for achieving independence and for
establishing a civil society with an orderly and just
government through a free and fair election.
Parliamentary democracy with one person one vote
was one of the first demands under the 6 points
programme that led to landslide victory in 1970 National
Assembly election followed by the historic war of
national liberation under the valiant leadership of our
Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Our
Constitution is a people's document and in whatever we
do, the ultimate point of reference is the people. The
supremacy of the Constitution and the affirmation in the
Constitution that all power belongs to the people are
the two most basic fundamentals of our governance and
all actions taken in the name of the Republic.
Parliament occupied the central position in running the
affairs of the Republic. The role of the Parliament was
different when presidential system was introduced. The
need for strengthening Bangladesh Parliament was felt as
soon as the country transited to a parliamentary system
of government in 1991 after the fall of erstwhile
autocratic government, in the face of mass upsurge for
the re-establishment of right of franchise and democracy
launched by all the opposition parties of the country.
After a relentless struggle by our people, a free and
fair election was held under a non-party Caretaker
Government and Parliament constituted after the said
election, the nation transited to a parliamentary system
of Government with the passing of the 12th
Amendment to the Constitution on the basis of consensus.
This
centrality of the Constitution, Ladies and Gentlemen,
govern and guide all our deliberations and performances,
be it in the Parliament or in the Committees. The
Committees derive their legitimacy and authority from
the Constitution, as does the Executive organ of the
state. This Conference is about the relationship, at
least impliedly if not directly, between the Executive
and the Committees of Parliament and, therefore, please
allow me to delve into this relationship in some detail.
It is the scheme - the fundamental premise - of the
Constitution that must shape the relationship between
the Executive, Parliament and Committees. In the scheme
of our Constitution, the Prime Minister occupies the
central position and she/he is the repository of all
executive power of the Republic. Article - 55 of our
Constitution provides that "(2) The executive
power of the Republic shall, in accordance with this
Constitution, be exercised by or on the authority of the
Prime Minister. (3) The Cabinet shall be collectively
responsible to Parliament." It is my submission
that we have to read Part IV of our Constitution
detailing with the power of the Executive in the light
of the Fundamental Principles of State Policy,
particularly, Article 11, which states, "The
Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human
rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and
worth of the human person shall be guaranteed and in
which effective participation by the people through
their elected representatives in administration at all
levels shall be ensured".
The scheme of the
Constitution, first, provides that all powers in the
Republic belong to the people; secondly, the powers must
be exercised in accordance with the Constitution and,
hence, the supremacy of the Constitution; thirdly, in
the exercise of the executive power, the Cabinet is
responsible to Parliament and fourthly, there must be
effective representation of the people, not only through
and in Parliament, but 'in administration at all levels'
as well. Parliament does not govern but it controls the
government and government is formed from within the
Parliament. Parliamentary Committees are appointed by
the Parliament and Committees being creation of
Parliament ought not to do that which Parliament does
not itself do.
'Parliamentary
Committee' means a committee appointed by Parliament or
nominated by the Speaker in accordance with the
Constitution and the Rules of Procedure. Article 76 of
our Constitution provides for the Standing Committees of
Parliament and, generally, Chapter 27, (Rule 187 to 266)
of, the Rules of Procedure of Parliament of the People's
Republic of Bangladesh details the composition functions
and method of working of the Committees. Though
Parliament has three main functions namely, (i)
legislation (ii) control of public finance and (iii)
shaping governmental policies through discussion and
deliberation, it has little time or expertise to perform
those functions in detail. Therefore, Article 76 of the
Constitution of Bangladesh has made provision for
appointment from among its members Standing Committees-
(a) Public Accounts Committee (b) Committee of
Privileges and (c) such other committees as the Rules of
Procedure of Parliament require. The committee system
helps in conserving the time of Parliament, increasing
expertise and enables Parliament to exert control over
the government. Government's main functions are carried
out by civil servants. It is in the committees that the
details of each matter can be discussed, the civil
servants can be made to give evidence and matters may be
examined thoroughly. The Committee system on the one
hand enables Parliament to organize its work and
discharge its functions effectively and on the other
hand the informal and business like atmosphere in
committee allows the work to be done almost free of
party politics which governs the deliberations in the
floor of Parliament. Committees appointed under Article
76(2) read with Rules 246 and 248 of the Rules of
Procedure may, subject to the Constitution and any other
law (a) examine draft Bills and other legislative
proposals; (b) review the enforcement of laws and
propose measure for such enforcement; (c) 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 Ministries and may
require relevant information and to answer questions and
thereby keep a check on the activities of bureaucracy
and perform any other
function which may be assigned to it by
Parliament. The reports of the Committees are
recommendatory in nature.
The
legislative powers of the Republic are vested in the
Parliament. Legislative business starts with the
initiation of Bills which function as it stands till
now, is within the control of the Executive. The
Parliament in usual practise, exercises its control over
a Bill when it is tabled in the House, at a subsequent
stage. The House does not exercise any control over a
draft Bill. There is no constitutional or legal bar
preventing the Parliament through its Committee to
examine the draft bills before its formal introduction
in Parliament by the Minister-in-charge. On the contrary
Article 76(2)(a) of the Constitution read with Rule 246
of Rules of Procedure empower the Committees to examine
a Bill at the drafting stage. Though this power so far
has not been exercised by the Committee it is therefore,
possible to have the legislative proposals from the
Ministry or a draft bill to be examined by the Standing
Committee of the particular Ministry before the same is
introduced by way of a Bill, provided they have the
expertise, competence and desire to do so. The Executive
cannot usurp the legislative powers of Parliament, nor
can it go beyond its rule-making powers.
Though
the Ministers remain at the head of the Ministries,
enforcement of laws and carrying out of the policies of
the government are essentially done by the civil
servants. The principle of responsibility through
Minister to Parliament is one of the most essential
characteristics of the civil service. Whatever is done
by the civil servants, the responsibility for that has
to be taken by the Minister in Parliament and the civil
servants remain secure in obscurity. The civil servants
remain accountable to the Ministries and the Minister
remains accountable to Parliament. But these standing
committees are means of investigation into the affairs
of the civil servants who can be called and investigated
in the Standing Committees.
Due
to long absence of democracy and growth of a healthy
democratic culture punctuated by occasional onslaught of
autocracy could sometimes create barrier in improving
good governance and overall socio-economic development
in the country. Deliberations in our Parliament have
little impact upon the bureaucracy. We have to device an
effective means and mechanism to ensure parliamentary
surveillance through the parliamentary committee system.
The usual purpose of setting up of Committees in
Parliament is to entrust to them the work of examining
the Bills, which are referred to them or to exercise
supervision or surveillance over the Administration so
as to ensure executive accountability. While the
Executive has a vast administrative machinery manned by
experts and civil servants at its disposal to carry out
its complex tasks, Parliament finds itself handicapped
in this regard. It is here that Committees may come to
the aid of Parliament. The public administration in
Bangladesh is a vast network of ministries, departments,
state-owned enterprises and financial institutions. The
Parliament needs to oversee the activities and spending
of these organizations to establish a reasonable degree
of public accountability and transparency. For effective
parliamentary surveillance of the Administration, the
Committees needs to be provided with requisite
technology, expertise and logistics, for which, the
present government has already taken a project named
"Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy" with
the support of UNDP.
The
relationship between the Executive and the Parliament is
one of the inter-dependence, based on mutual trust and
confidence. The main purpose of Parliamentary over-sight
is to promote a more efficient public management, not to
impair administrative will for action. The legislative
oversight function cannot be performed effectively in an
environment of adversial relationship with the
administration. The success of Parliament depends upon
fulfilling adequately its role by responding to the
emerging needs, urges and aspirations of the people and
the commitment of our public functionaries in the
implementation of the approved policies and programmes.
The ultimate purpose of all our activities and
responsibilities is to legislate for the welfare of the
people; to represent their needs, urges and aspirations
and ensure that governmental measures are taken and
implemented only with the aim of enhancing and promoting
their well being.
Let
me now very briefly update you on the recent measures
undertaken to enhance the effectiveness and functioning
of the various committees. Our committees are now headed
not by Ministers but by Members of Parliament as they
have been made Chairmen of these Committees. This is
certainly an innovative measure, initiated by the
Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to ensure proper
accountability and transparency of the concerned
ministries. Unlike in the recent past, the Committees
are regularly functioning and in some instances have
even taken evidence and sought opinions from relevant
experts outside the government or the Parliament.
Introduction of Prime Minister's question hour by our
Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is another historic
step for ensuring the accountability and transparency of
the government.
The effectiveness of the Parliament depends upon the
quality and commitments of the persons by whom these are
manned and here the national leaders of the major
political parties have a great responsibility in
nominating the appropriate persons for the Parliament.
After the introduction of non-party caretaker system in
our Constitution under Article-58B, we could ensure the
right to franchise free from the influence of money,
muscle and violence and thereby we shall get the best
available persons as our representatives. Political
workers having long sacrifices, dedication and
commitment should not be overtaken by the new comers
with money and muscle.
Establishment
of the Institute for Parliamentary Studies (IPS) is
another measure, undertaken with the support of the UNDP
for strengthening the Parliament through provision of
support, research and other services to the
Parliamentarians. We must recognise the evolution and
strengthening of Parliament cannot be accomplished in
one sweep, nor can it be done by one party alone as
Parliament consists of representatives of many parties
and ideologies. It is together that we must turn our
Parliament and the committees into the most effective
tools of responsive, accountable and transparent
governance and representative legislation. I am sure we
shall be scrutinising various aspects of our committee
system over the next two days and share experience from
other countries. We have a lot to learn and more so
since democracy, to my mind, is a vision. Democracy is
not a road of which you reach the end on one fine
morning. It is through our practices that me must thrive
to continuously evolve better democratic mechanisms.
Obviously there are lacunae in the current functioning
of the committees. To assert otherwise would be to lay a
claim on perfection, which is surely preposterous.
However, in evolving the role of the committees and
measures for their better functioning we must not lose
sight of the parameters of relationship between the
committee and the executive, as I have already
mentioned. I would urge this conference to pay some
attention to these parameters and it is my belief that
if we first settle our expectations from the committees,
then it would be easier to device mechanism for
attaining the goals.
I
am encouraged by the proposed structure of deliberations
of this conference. The major and pertinent concerns
such as the Budget and the Role of Committees, the
functions of Chairpersons, parliamentary oversight,
women’ issues will draw your valuable attention and
scrutiny during the conference. More mundane, but
nonetheless very important issues like facilities and
logistics needed for the effective discharge of duties
by the members and committees will also draw your
attention. Having drawn you kind attention to the above
issues let me conclude by saying that the deliberation
of this conference and sharing of experience with
Members of Parliaments of other countries and experts
will surely help us to forge better relationship
between, on the one hand, the government and the
committees and, on the other hand, the committees and
Parliament. The purpose of these relationships, we must
not forget, is to ensure better public service and
meaningful advancement of the state of the people of the
country. It is for the people that we are Members and
Ministers and it is for them that we must strive to
fashion a better functioning of the committees, the
government and the Parliament.
I thank you all. Joy Bangla
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