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Hon'ble
Prime Minister and Chief Guest, Hon'ble Speaker and
Chair, Hon'ble Minister for Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs, Hon'ble Members of Cabinet,
Hon'ble Ambassadors and High Commissioners, Hon'ble
delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
On
behalf of the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat and
on my own behalf, I welcome you to the inaugural
ceremony of this conference on Parliamentary Committee
Systems. Hon'ble Prime Minister, we are grateful to you
for agreeing to be the Chief Guest of this inaugural
ceremony. Your commitment to democracy itself and
parliamentary system in particular is well known. You
have got the provision inserted in the rules making MPs
the Chairpersons of Standing Committees on Ministries
instead of concerned Ministers, have introduced the
Prime Minister's Question Time and have also arranged
live broadcasting of the proceedings of Parliament in
the electronic media. You have been working tirelessly
to make Parliament the nerve centre of all national
activities. You have fought and won the battle for
establishing the voting rights of the people by ensuring
free and unfettered elections. This conference has been
organised with a view to further strengthen the
Parliamentary system in Bangladesh and for that reason
your presence here today is very significant.
Hon'ble
Prime Minister had inaugurated in September last year
the Institute of Parliamentary Studies, which is
organising this conference. The tasks of this Institute
include: (1) familiarising the honourable MPs,
especially those who have been elected for the first
time, with Parliament and the parliamentary system; (2)
arranging training programmes for officials and
employees who are involved in the affairs of Parliament
both from the Parliament Secretariat and outside, (3)
setting up of a modern research and information centre
to provide prompt assistance to the MPs in the discharge
of their responsibilities and (4) arranging exchange of
information and experience among the MPs themselves and
with members of other Parliaments. This conference aims
at creating one such opportunity.
There
was a time in history when there was no provision for
Committees in the parliamentary system. The need for
committees was felt for two reasons. One, to create an
opportunity for detailed scrutiny of draft of bills
placed for consideration of the House and two, to save
time of the House and create more opportunities for it
to discharge its other responsibilities. Both ruling and
opposition parties are represented in the committees
and, therefore, deliberations reflect views of both.
Hon'ble Prime Minister, under your leadership,
arrangements have been made in this Parliament under
which all Bills are sent for the consideration of one
committee or the other. When these Bills are placed
before the House after due consideration by the
committees honourable members get the opportunity to
express their views on those. Thus all aspects of a bill
can be discussed in a short period of time. That's why
the Committee System is so important and hence the need
to further strengthening it.
This
conference has been arranged to consider how the
Committee System can further be strengthened. Delegates
from abroad are also here. It is necessary to have a
comparative study of the experiences and work method of
our and other parliaments so that our system can be made
more effective. The
working sessions of this two-day conference begins this
afternoon. Various subjects will be discussed in these
sessions. Included in them are the oversight of the
executive and the responsibilities of the committee
chairpersons. Detailed discussions will be held after
presentation of the papers. At the end the conference
will produce a set of recommendations aimed at further
strengthening our Parliamentary Committee System. In
addition delegates will be provided with a questionnaire
on the committee system we have today. I shall request
honourable delegates to answer the questions. Answers
received will be compiled and this compilation together
with the conference recommendations will be forwarded
for consideration of the Committee on Rules of
Procedure. Parliament may like to take necessary steps
based on the recommendations of that Committee. The
success of this conference depends on your active
participation and we are convinced this would be
forthcoming.
We
had invited the honourable Leader of the Opposition to
be the Guest of Honour in the closing ceremony of the
conference. She had accepted the invitation. But at the
last moment her Private Secretary has conveyed to us her
inability to attend the ceremony. That's why we had to
cancel the closing ceremony. We hope that although the
honourable Leader of the Opposition would not be coming,
Members belonging to opposition parties would
participate in the conference and place their views. We
strongly believe that it is only through the active
participation of both ruling party and opposition
Members that a conference on parliamentary affairs can
be meaningful. It would not have been possible to
organise this conference without the full time
supervision and guidance by the Honourable Speaker. We
thank him whole-heartedly. We also thank the panelists
of the conference and the participants. We thank the
United Nations Development Programme with whose
assistance the project "Strengthening Parliamentary
Democracy" is being implemented. We thank
representatives of the media and hope that by reaching
the deliberations of this conference to the people they
will help make our people even more democracy minded. I
also thank all my colleagues in the Parliament
Secretariat, advisers and consultants working in
Parliament and the firm engaged to prepare proceedings
and other reports on the conference.
I thank you all.
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