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JATIYA SANGSAD

Govt-opposition talks fail to settle seat plan

Staff Correspondent
Talks between chief whips of the treasury and opposition benches to resolve the row over seating arrangements in die House yesterday ended inconclusively as none agreed to budge on their stance.
Speaker Abdul Hamid, who mediated the discussions, termed the situation difficult and unpleasant, and said he would try to work out a solution before resumption of the session this afternoon.
Informed about the ruling parry's rearrangement proposal, opposition Chief Whip Joynal Abedin Faruk gave a note of dissent and left the meeting at the speaker's office.
After discussions with senior BNP leaders, he told Hamid that his party would not accept any change in the seat plans.
"The ruling party wants to keep us from parliament by secrbraryv^nt-raT Khandaker Delwar Hossain told a press briefing at the party chief s Gulshan office.
Abdus Shahid, chief whip of parliament, said they do not approve of the current seat arrangements made by immediate past speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, and so they are seeking changes to those.
According to the treasury's proposal. the opposition should have three seats in the front row and four in the second.
At present, they have 10 seats in the front row on the left of the House chair. Of those, nine belong to BNP lawmakers and one to Oli Ahmed, the Ione lawmaker from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
The second row that has 12 seats too has been set aside for the opposition lawmakers.
Annoyed at the arrangements. the treasury bench has requested the new speaker to redress the situation'.
"I'm under tremendous pressure from both sides. I’ll try to solve the issue before the session resumes tomorrow," Speaker Hamid told reporters yesterday afternoon.
He said. "The treasury won't sit in the House without rearrangement while the opposition chief whip has said they wo n' t accep t any change.
Tm trying my best. But I wonder how I'll make either sidehappy equally.''
Mentioning three-fourth majority of the AL-led grand alliance, the speaker said, “Things have got quite embarrassing for me.
“If seats are distributed in proportion to the number of a party's lawmakers, the opposition will get only three seats in the front row. In the eighth parliament, the then opposition Awami I.eague that had 62 MPs was allocated six seats on the front row."
Such discord would not have arisen, had Sircar made die arrangements in consultation with the ruling party, he added.
As of filing this report at 11:00pm, the speakerwas trying to settle on five to six front-row seats for BNP The remaining seats on that line might be given to the grand alliance partners, said sources at the parliament secretariat
Earlier in the afternoon, after an hour-long meeting at the speaker's office, opposition chief whip told reporters that the seating arrangements must be kept as they are now.
"We cannot accept only three seats in the front row,” Faruk said.
Shahid told reporters that they have asked the speaker to reorganise the seat chart as per proportional representation in parliament.
The speaker can finalise the seating arrangements in consultation with the chief whips. However, doing so is not mandatory as the rules of procedure ’eaves the matters at nis discretion.