10th Jatiya Sangsad takes only 31 minutes on average to pass 71pc bills

The parliamentarians of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad spent on an average less than 30 minutes to pass 71 per cent of the bills, finds a study of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

They took more than 60 minutes for discussing only one bill, the TIB study says.

TIB published the findings on the 10th parliament in the latest edition of Parliament Watch. The tenure of the 10th parliament was from January 2014 to October 2018.

Nihar Ranjan Roy and Morsheda Akter, who had conducted the study, presented the report at TIB’s Dhanmondi office in the capital on Wednesday.

The lawmakers spent 1,410.09 hours in 410 working days in 23 sessions of the 10th parliament. A total of 193 bills were passed in the 10th Jatiya Sangsad.

Elaborating the activities of the parliament, the TIB report further said, 45 per cent of the bills were passed in 21-40 minutes while the MPs took 40-60 minutes in passing eight per cent of the bills.

The lawmakers, including the ministers, took less than 20 minutes to pass 46 per cent of the bills, according to the TIB report.

According to TIB, MPs of House of Lords of the UK spent 48 per cent of its time in discussion and analysis before passing any bill while Bangladesh MPs spent only 12 per cent of the total time in enacting laws. India’s Lok Sabha MPs spent 32 per cent of its time for composing laws, the TIB report said.

The TIB report has not taken into account the time taken to discuss the national budget.

According to TIB findings, MPs of 10th Jatiya Sangsad took only 31 minutes on average to pass a bill. On the other hand, India’s Lok Sabha MPs spend 141 minutes on average for discussion before passing any bill.

Of the time taken to enacting laws, the ruling Awami League MPs spent 11 per cent, opposition Jatiya Party (JaPa) MPs 67 per cent and MPs from other parties spent 22 per cent for discussion.

The opposition MPs were relatively more active in bringing corrections and vetting of those bills. Like previous parliaments, the proposals to verify public opinions on proposed bills were discarded in voice votes.

The TIB report also said several much-talked about bills, including foreign aid regulation, digital security, road transport and the 16th amendment to the constitution, did not reflect the stakeholders’ opinions.

TIB chairman Sultana Kamal and its executive director Iftekharuzzaman were present at the programme.