Quorum crisis hits crucial JS body meet

A meeting of the parliamentary committee on public undertakings could not be held yesterday at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban as there was no quorum.

Only two of its 10 members were in attendance, one short of a quorum. The two present were committee chief Col (retd) Shawkat Ali and Abdur Rouf MP.

The situation of the state-owned Sonali, Agrani, Janata and Rupali banks, specially their huge default loans, was set to be discussed at the 18th meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings at 3:00pm.

Talking to The Daily Star, Shawkat said he was forced to cancel the meeting in presence of officials concerned of the Parliament Secretariat, ministries and departments as the quorum was not met.

The lawmaker waited for about half an hour in the meeting room on the first floor of the parliament building. 

Shawkat, also a former deputy speaker of parliament, said the Parliament Secretariat informed the committee members about the meeting at least 15 days ago. Besides, they were sent SMS messages a day before the meeting.

The committee is composed of 10 Awami League lawmakers. Eight other members of the committee are Abdul Quddus, Majibur Rahman Fakir, Muhibur Rahman Manik, Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, Habibir Rahman, Nurul Islam Shujan, Abdul Wadud and Navana Akhter.

According to the rules of procedure of parliament, the quorum to constitute a sitting of a committee shall be, as near as may be, one-third of the total number of members of the committee.

Every parliamentary committee has an obligation to sit at least once in 30 days.

Contacted, Habibur Rahman, Abdul Quddus and Navana Akhter said they could not join the meeting as they were busy with programmes in their constituencies to mark the 40th death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.