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BNP, allies delay oath schedule

Sit Wednesday for decision; Sircar plays his last hurrah, administers oath to 5

Staff Correspondent
The lawmakers-elect of BNP-led four-party alliance skipped the oath-taking scheduled for them yesterday.
This denied Jamiruddin Sircar, who was elected speaker from BNP in the immediate past parliament, the opportunity to administer oath to his party and alliance colleagues.
Now the chief election commissioner (CEC) will officiate at the oath-taking if the MPs-elect of four-party alliance decide to be sworn in by the next three days.
According to the constitution article concerning oaths of office, the outgoing speaker shall administer oath to lawmakers-elect in the first three days after publication of election
results in the gazette. The CEC shall do the job for the next three days.
Meanwhile, Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar administered oath to five lawmakers yesterday afternoon.
Of the five, Fazlul Azim, Abdul Baten and Kabirul Haq were elected from Noakhali-6, Tangail-6 and Narail-1 constituencies as independent candidates, Col (retd) Oli Ahmed from Chittagong-13 on Liberal Democratic Party ticket and Ranjit Kumar Roy from Jessore-4 on AL ticket.
BNP and its allies have yet to decide when their lawmakers-elect will take oath. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia might meet her party lawmakers-elect Wednesday at her Gulshan
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office to settle on the next course of action, said part)' sources.
“The chairperson has asked us to be at the meeting to discuss how we can play an effective role in the ninth parliament." ABM Ashrafuddin, BN? MP-elect from Laxmipur-4, told The Daily Star over telephone yesterday.
However, the same day Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former parliamentary affairs adviser to Khaleda Zia, said they would not take oath before January 8.
Speaking at a press conference at his Mohaknali office, he said at Wednesday's meeting they would decide whether to join parliament.
In another development, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami met the BNP chief at her cantonment residence last night.
During the hour-long meeting, the two leaders talked about different post-polls issues includingoath-taking.
Earlier in the day, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman toldThe Daily Star that his party would followBNP'sdecision.
The four-party alliance, which won the 2001 election by a landslide, managed to secure only 32 seats against 262 bagged by rival Awami League-led grand alliance in the December 29 genera] election.
Of its seats. BNP got 29. Jamaat two and Bangladesher Jatiya Party (BJP) one.
Parliament secretariat officials said Speaker Jamiruddin seemed quite upset for not being able to administer oath to the BNP lawmakerselect.
In the wake of polls debacle in 2001, the AL policymakers were at first confused whether they should take oath. They however thought better of it and decided in favour of taking oath under the then outgoing speaker Abdul Hamid.
Hamid was elected speaker from AL, the majority party in the seventh parliament.
Sircar expected something similar from his party.
He said if the four-party lawmakers-elect opt not to take oath from the CEC in the next three days, they must be sworn in within 90 days since the first sitting of the new parliament to avert their seats falling vacant.
On the first day of oathtaking Saturday. Jamiruddin Sircar administered oath to 259 MPsatasimpleceremony.
Of them. 227 were from AL, 25 from Jatiya Party (Jpj, two from Workers Party of Bangladesh, three from Jatiya Samajtantnk Dal (JSD) and two were independent lawmakers.
KAB1RULJ0INSAL
Kabirul Haq of Narail joined AL before taking oath in the afternoon.
"I met Sheikh Hasina this morning and joined her party," he told reporters after his swear-ing-inaslawmaker.
"Now you can consider me an Awami League MR" he said adding that he has long been involved in local AL politics.
KabiruTs joining AL took the grand alliance tally to 263.