A number of former Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party lawmakers yesterday said only the elected legislators have the right to stay in the Nam flats as those are parliament property.

They demanded that the government immediately cancel the allotment of the Nam flats to the government officials.

"We are living here (Nam flats] as per allocation from the Parliament Secretariat and no-one has the right to cancel that allotment," said Shajahan Khan at a press conference at the Nam Flat on Manik Miah Avenue.

Former lawmakers of AL, BNP and JP of the eighth parliament present at die press conference raised their voice in support of the statement.

They said they will vacate the flats if the government guarantees that those won t be allocated to anyone else before the next general elections.

The former lawmakers however said they don't believe the flats would remain vacant as some have already been allotted to the government officials.

On living without rent, they said nowhere in the world lawmakers pay rent, adding, they only pay service charges.

In the written statement, Shajahan Khan said according to a parliament committee meeting, Nam flats on Manik Miah Avenue and Nakhaipara are now parliament members' residence.

"Parliament members' buildings are property of parliament and only elected lawmakers have the right to live there. It's disgraceful and humiliation to let those to others," he said.

"We don’t want to go on confrontation with the government," he said, demanding that the government will work in line with the Speaker's application.

He also said only Parliament Secretariat can fix rent for MPs and "we’re using Nam flats paying service charges fixed by the parliament secretariat".

Earlier on March 23, a number of former lawmakers of AL, BNP and Jatiya Party vowed to resist the government move to vacate the flats.

On December 4 last year, the ministry of housing and public works asked the Parliament Secretariat to cancel the Nam flat allotment for the former lawmakers. It also asked the secretariat to direct the ex-lawmakers to apply to the Directorate of Government Accommodation (DGA) for fresh allotment and pay as per increased rent — Tk 20,000 a month for a 1,250-sqft well furnished flat and Tk 25,000 for a 1,800-sqft flat in stead ofTk 400 and Tk 500.

The Parliament Secretariat handed over 137 Nam flats to the ministry on condition that those would again go under the secretariat's jurisdiction as soon as the official results of the ninth parlia-ment are declared.

The government and the former -lawmakers are now in a head-to- * head position as the housing ministry had asked them to either vacate the flats by March 31 or pay Tk 28,000 per month as rent

Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar in a letter to the chief adviser on March 30 said the Nam flats are the property of the Parliament Secretariat.

Neither the government nor the speaker had the authority to cancel the decision of the Sangsad Committee of the eighth Parliament, he said.

Sircar in his letter proposed that the issue could be resolved through holding a joint meeting of the MPs,

officials of the Parliament •Secretariat and the housing ministry with the law adviser as arbitrator., ■

The speaker also proposed that the issue could be referred to the Supreme Court for legal opinion.

Shajahan Khan, Advocate Promod Mankin, Prof Dr Amanullah, Motahar Hossein of AL, Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi, AKM Selim Reza Habib, Nurul Kabir Sahin, Dr Muhammad Saleque Chowdhury, Rezina Islam, Fahima Hussein Jubilee, Rasheda Begum Hira, Advocate Bilkis Jahan Shirin, Nurjahan Yasmin of BNP and Mojibur Rahman of JP were present at yesterday's press briefing.