Leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have said there are little chances that they would attend the next session of parliament scheduled to begin on October 20, although the treasury bench have repeatedly urged them to return to the house and place their demands.
BNP insiders said they were abstaining from attending the house sessions on various grounds and accused the government of not initiating any effective move to ensure the opposition's return to the house.
'Although we have not made a decision, the possibility of our attending the session is still zero,' the opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque told New Age on Saturday.
Farroque, who returned to the country on Friday after staying in the United States for about one month and a half for treatment, also said that the BNP's attention was now focused on the 'long march' beginning on Monday and the party would think of other programmes and issues after the Sylhet long march.
'We are boycotting the house to press our various demands but the ruling party have paid no heed yet and have not communicated us over the matter,' he said, adding that 'no significant progress' had been made by this time to persuade the opposition to attend the upcoming session.
He, however, said that he would talk to the party chairperson Khaleda Zia and other leaders before taking a final decision on whether to attend the next session.
Senior BNP leader MK Anwar said that the ruling party had not created an atmosphere conducive to the opposition's return to parliament.
'We are yet to take a decision on the matter,' Anwar, also a party standing committee member, told New Age on Saturday, adding that the situation remained unchanged.
The chief whip of parliament, Abdus Shahid, however, said that the treasury bench always wanted presence of the opposition parties in the house as it was their constitutional responsibility to attend after the president summons parliament.
'I have repeatedly requested the opposition to attend sessions… The prime minister and the speaker have also made repeated appeals,' Shahid told New Age on Saturday. 'What can one
do if they abstain from attending the session despite taking all facilities as lawmakers.'
He hopped that the opposition would attend the next session and the treasury and opposition lawmakers would exchange Eid greetings there.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on October 1 welcomed the opposition's proposal for re-constitution of the Elections Commission by consensus and urged the BNP to place its demands in parliament and discuss everything there.
Hasina on different occasion urged the opposition to return to the house to press their demands, including the one on the election-time interim government.
Senior leaders of the AL, including general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam and presidium members Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Matia Chowdhury made similar appeals to the main opposition.
The BNP last time attended the house on March 25 during the eighth session of parliament after boycotting 74 consecutive sittings to keep their memberships valid but remained absent in the ninth and tenth sessions.
BNP did not attend the second, third, sixth and seventh sessions of the ninth parliament and only attended the fifth session for only one day.
BNP started boycotting parliament sessions from the second session over some issues, including seating arrangement in the front row, demanding withdrawal of the cases against Khaleda Zia and her two sons and other BNP leaders and activists, scrapping of the decision to cancel the lease of Khaleda Zia's cantonment house and ensuring an atmosphere conducive to their return to the house.
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