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Speaker Abdul Hamid said on Monday main opposition BNP may get one more seat on the front row in parliament, a move that could be seen as holding out an olive branch to lure the boycotting party into the house.
According to the speaker, this will fulfill one demand of the BNP, which has been absent from parliament since June this year.
However, senior BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, in reaction to the nominal offer said the seating dispute was not the only issue at stake.
Chowdhury told bdnews24.com: "It's not right to say that the opposition is absent from parliament only because of the seat dispute. Nor is it correct to assume that BNP will return to parliament just because one more seat is offered on the front row."
He said "oppression" and "harassment" by the Awami league-led government were "the main bars" to the opposition joining parliament.
"The speaker and the government have to remove these obstacles," he added.
With the offer of one more seat the BNP will have six on the front row.
Briefing journalists on the 9th parliament's one-year performance, Hamid claimed that the country's parliament was "not dysfunctional".
The BNP's participation will make parliament sessions more "lively", he told journalists at parliament's media centre Monday.
"I have already allocated them five front row seats, in excess of the number due for the party on the basis of its representation in parliament. But they still demand one more," Hamid told reporters.
"I can request the prime minister (Leader of the House) to allocate one more front row seat to the opposition if they raise the demand inside the House.
"If they do so, I think, the problem can be solved," said Hamid, who blamed his predecessor Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, now a BNP MP, for the problem.
The BNP and its allies, with 32 seats in 345-strong unicameral chamber, have been boycotting parliament to press the demand for securing at least six out of out 29 front row seats.
Hamid, who was deputy leader of the opposition in the 8th parliament, said the BNP gave Awmai League six front row seats against 60 seats it won in polls. After three years, the Awami League's front row seats increased to eight, he said.
"As per the proportion, the BNP should have got four front row seats," said Hamid, elected from a Kishoreganj constituency with Awami League ticket.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina had told parliament that the main opposition was given more seats than its party required by strength.
Outgoing speaker Sircar allocated nine front row seats in the opposition bench, on the left side of the Speaker's chair, to the BNP despite the ruling Awami League's strong reservation.
Sircar had said the speaker, be it outgoing or newly elected, was the final authority to make seating arrangement as per parliament's Rules of Procedure.
New speaker Abdul Hamid in the face of treasury bench demand rearranged the same and reduced the BNP's front row seats to four from nine.
The main opposition started boycotting parliament from Jan 29, the second day of the 9th parliament, protesting the new seating order.
The BNP-led opposition returned to House on Feb 19 as Hamid promised them "respectable" number of front row seats. The BNP got one more seat in the front line as the Awmai League agreed.
But the BNP demanded a further one seat.
"I don't agree that parliament has become ineffective," Hamid said.
"Parliament is composed of the treasury bench and the opposition, no matter how small they are.
"If the main opposition returns to the House, parliament would be livelier and people would be enthusiastic," he said.
The speaker said apart from the sessions, the opposition MPs had been taking part in all parliament activities including standing committee meetings regularly.
Source: bdnews24.com
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