Dhaka //

In the absence of the speaker of the National Assembly, the interim legal, judicial and parliamentary affairs advisor Professor Asif Nazrul will perform his administrative and financial duties.

The draft of the ‘National Parliament Secretariat (Interim Special Provisions) Ordinance-2024’ was approved in the advisory council meeting on Thursday. Therein lies the point. If the President promulgates the Ordinance, the Legal Adviser will perform this duty.

Tejgaon chief adviser’s office chaired the meeting of the advisory council chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus. At the end of the meeting, the decisions of the meeting were communicated from the Press Wing of the Chief Adviser. Apart from this, the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam also highlighted this issue in a press conference organized at Foreign Service Academy in the capital in the evening.

The draft of ‘National Parliament Secretariat (Interim Special Provisions) Ordinance-2024’ has been approved in the advisory council meeting. According to the draft, for the interim period all kinds of administrative and financial powers of the Parliament Secretariat such as creation and abolition of posts, determination and reduction of the number of officers and employees, preparation of annual budget, promotion to third grade and above, all matters related to amendment of recruitment rules and other matters. (Except the responsibilities relating to parliamentary affairs as per Article 74 of the Constitution) are vested in the Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs (Asif Nazrul). Other financial and administrative powers are proposed to be given to the Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat in the draft.

The draft law also proposes to set up an Interim Parliament Secretariat Commission with the Parliamentary Affairs Adviser as its chairman. It should be noted that according to the existing law of the National Parliament Secretariat, some duties of the National Parliament Secretariat such as creation and abolition of posts, determining and increasing the number of officers and employees, preparing the annual budget, etc. are carried out by the Speaker in consultation with the Parliament Secretariat Commission.

The reason behind the initiation of this ordinance is said to be that the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left the country in the face of the mass uprising of the students and the President dissolved the 12th National Parliament on August 5. Later, the Speaker of the 12th Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury also resigned. In the absence of the Speaker, problems are being created in the day-to-day, administrative and financial work of the Parliament Secretariat. Incidentally, according to law, the Speaker of the Parliament is the administrative head of the Parliament Secretariat.