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Parliament chamber
An unscheduled debate erupted in the Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday night between the Treasury bench and the opposition over the allocation of parliamentary standing committee chairmanships in line with the July National Charter, leaving the dispute unresolved.
The impasse centers on whether the opposition should be granted the chairmanships of ministry-related standing committees prior to formal constitutional amendments. The ruling party maintained that it has no objection to allocating standing committee chairmanships as per the July Charter, provided the opposition participates in the ongoing constitutional reform process and nominates representatives to the 12-member parliamentary Special Committee on Constitutional Amendment. Government leaders termed the opposition's stance contradictory, arguing that they demand privileges under the charter while refusing to cooperate in the legislative process required to implement it.
Conversely, the opposition rejected any conditionality linking standing committee posts to their participation in the constitutional amendment committee. Reaffirming their principled boycott of the special committee due to process-related conceptual differences, the opposition asserted that the July Charter already entitles them to 26 percent of ministry-related committee chairs based on their parliamentary seat proportion—a convention the government could execute immediately without waiting for constitutional changes.
Participating in the debate were Chief Whip Nurul Islam, Home Minister and Special Committee Chairman Salahuddin Ahmed, and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher. Following the heated exchanges, no new standing committees were formed during the session, and the House merely reconstituted four existing committees.
To date, 15 out of a total 50 parliamentary standing committees (11 subject-based and 39 ministry-related) have been constituted in the 13th Parliament. Among these, only the Public Accounts Committee chairmanship has been allotted to the opposition, headed by Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher.
The July National Charter—signed as a cross-party political consensus document by 30 political parties and alliances including the BNP—stipulates that opposition members shall head four key oversight bodies:
Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Committee on Privileges
Committee on Estimates
Committee on Public Undertakings
Furthermore, the charter mandates proportional allocation of ministry-related standing committee chairs. Accounting for their 26 percent parliamentary seat share, the opposition claims a total of 14 chairmanships (10 ministry-related plus four charter-designated committees).
During the floor debate, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed noted that the government previously offered the Deputy Speaker post to the opposition ahead of constitutional changes, which the opposition declined. Consequently, the Treasury bench resolved that comprehensive post allocations would follow the passage of the constitutional amendment bill. Concluding the session, Deputy Speaker Kaiser Kamal urged both sides to prioritize national interests and proposed holding closed-door consultations between top parliamentary leaders to resolve the deadlock.
