Staff Reporter:
The third session of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad opened in disorder on Thursday after Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed’s remark comparing an opposition MP’s question to “a speech at Paltan” triggered furious protests, prompting Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad to warn that the House’s future was at stake.
Proceedings began at 3pm with the speaker in the chair. After the adoption of a condolence motion and the nomination of the panel of chairmen, the House moved into the question-and-answer hour, during which the disorder erupted.
The flashpoint came when the home minister responded to a supplementary question from opposition MP Hasnat Abdullah of Cumilla-4 on the country’s law and order situation.
Defending law enforcement action and taking aim at the opposition’s past record on national security, the minister said, “I could not understand whether it was a question or a speech at Paltan.”
The remark drew immediate protests from opposition benches. MPs stood up shouting slogans and demanding a retraction, bringing proceedings to a standstill for several minutes.
Intervening to restore order, the Speaker said he was “deeply worried about the future of this parliament” if such conduct persisted on the opening day of the session.
He added that lawmakers were now free to criticise the government, noting, “This is not the Awami League era.”
Leader of the Opposition and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman, rising on a point of order, called the home minister’s remark unparliamentary and provocative, accusing him of addressing MPs “as though they were his students,” and demanded the comment be expunged.
The speaker assured the House that any unparliamentary language would be struck from the record after the transcripts were reviewed.
Business resumed after the disruption. The home minister told Parliament that 19,641 firearms licences had been issued between 2010 and 2024, and that the government planned to recruit 4,000 sub-inspectors, 400 sergeants and 10,000 constables.
Earlier, the speaker had announced a five-member panel of chairmen: Goyeshwar Chandra Roy (Dhaka-3), Sarwar Jamal Nizam (Chattogram-13), Barrister Nawshad Zamir (Panchagarh-1), Nilufar Chowdhury Moni (Women’s Seat-10) and Professor Mujibur Rahman (Rajshahi-1), who will preside in the Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s absence in order of seniority.
The House then adopted a condolence motion for former acting president and speaker Barrister Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar and other former MPs and ministers, and paid tribute to Ekushey Padak recipients Al Mujahidi and Mustafa Monwar, and academic Professor Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque.
It also expressed sorrow over the Nepal floods and landslides and over fatal accidents at home and abroad. MPs observed a minute’s silence, followed by a munajat led by Religious Affairs Minister Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad.
Before the sitting, the Business Advisory Committee met at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban’s Cabinet Room, chaired by the Speaker and attended by the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Dr Shafiqur Rahman.
The committee set the session to run until 10 September, with sittings from 3pm on working days, excluding holidays and 31 August–1 September, and authorised the Speaker to amend the schedule if required.
A total of 2,818 questions were tabled for the session – 142 to the Prime Minister and 2,676 to other ministers – alongside 81 Calling Attention notices and 249 Resolution notices.
Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni said forming parliamentary committees would be a top priority, pending nominations from the opposition.
