The Awami League Parliamentary Party (ALPP) sits on Tuesday evening to select the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the 10th Parliament. Addressing a press briefing at the media center of Parliament, ruling party chief whip ASM Feroz said the ALPP meeting will be held at the meeting room of the ruling party at the Sangsad Bhaban at 6 pm. This was his first official appearance in front of the media after being selected the chief whip. The other ruling party whips Atiur Rahman Atiq, M Shahab Uddin, Iqbalur Rahim, Solaiman Haque Joarder and Shahiduzzaman Sarker were present. The 10th Parliament goes into maiden session on Wednesday when the new Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be elected at the first sitting. It is now clear that incumbent Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury would not be able to vie for the Speaker post as she is not an MP of the new parliament. Dr Shirin, the country’s first female Speaker, did not take part in the last election. She, however, had a chance to be an MP from women reserved seats but the Election Commission is yet to start the process to elect the women MPs for the reserved seats. But Dr Shirin is contesting the by-election to Rangpur-6 constituency, a seat vacated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Speaker submitted her nomination paper on Sunday for the Rangpur-6 the polls for which billed for February 20. If there is no other candidate for that constituency the Election Commission might declare her elected unopposed after February 3. About the probable Speaker and the Deputy Speaker candidates, ASM Feroz said that there are at least 10 MPs in the ruling party who are very much eligible to be in the posts. He said that there might be a discussion in the ALPP over the next Speaker and Deputy Speaker. “Whatever the decision we’ll take it collectively,” he said. In this connection, Feroz mentioned that if the party chief comes up with any decision in this regard then the other ALPP members would abide by it. – UNB
JP to get 5 front row seats in JS : The Jatiya Party led by HM Ershad will get five seats in the front row of the 10th Parliament as BNP got in the last Parliament, said chief whip ASM Feroz. He disclosed this while briefing reporters at the Parliament media centre. The chief whip said BNP in the 9th Parliament got the same number of seats as the opposition what the JP is going to get this time. Feroz said the JP will be given five seats although they are entitled to get four as per the proportion of its members in Parliament. Responding to a question, the chief whip said he is hopeful that the JP will be satisfied with this number of seats in the front row. He also hoped that JP will play its due role as the opposition by doing constructive criticisms although they are the part of the cabinet. – UNB
