Speaker of the Parliament Jamiruddin Sircar is set to depart for South Africa today to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) Assembly accompanied by his personal staff, although the country currently has no parliament.
The speaker earlier approved reallocation of Tk 30 lakh in the Parliament Secretariat's annual budget to meet the travel expenditure, since the entire original itemised allocation of Tk 54 lakh in the current budget under a title 'sending of delegations' had already been spent.
Abdul Hamid, a former speaker, questioned the need for Sircar's presence at the IPU assembly in absence of a parliament in the country. "I don't see any need for participating in the IPU assembly since the country has no parliament now," Hamid told The Daily Star yesterday.
The former speaker said lawmakers join IPU assemblies and speakers may also sometimes attend the event as team leaders, but added, "The current speaker should not attend the IPU assembly since it will bring no result other than spending of public money."
Speaker Sircar is leading a four-member Bangladesh delegation including Additional Secretary to the Parliament Kuddus Khan, Speaker's Personal Secretary Habibur Rahman, and his Assistant Personal Secretary MA Majid.
The additional secretary was included in the team as the delegation's secretary and Sircar's two personal staff was included as assistant officers, the sources said quoting from an official order.
Sircar's wife NA Sircar will also accompany the speaker at her own expense, the official circular added.
The IPU assembly is scheduled to be held from April 13 to 18 in Cape Town.
Elected parliaments of sovereign states are members of IPU and lawmakers of the parliaments join IPU assemblies where discussions are held on various issues.
Lawmakers of Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad joined previous IPU assemblies. But currently there is no parliament in the country as the election to form a new parliament has not been held since the immediate past eighth parliament's dissolution on October 27, 2006.
According to the rules of IPU, its assembly shall be composed of 'sitting members of parliaments'.
The speaker also attended the 117th assembly of IPU in Geneva in October of last year, which also met after the dissolution of the parliament he represents.
The speaker sent an official to India in March to collect visas for the delegation to Cape Town assembly of IPU, since South Africa does not have a foreign mission in Dhaka. Ali Ashraf, senior assistant secretary to the parliament, stayed in New Delhi from March 24 to 27 to collect the visas, expenditures for which also came from the parliament secretariat's budget, sources said.
On instructions from the speaker, the Parliament Secretariat on Tuesday sent a letter to Zia International Airport asking the airport authorities to take necessary measures to keep open the airport's VIP lounge today for the delegation's use.
"Officials of the Parliament Secretariat will be present there to see off the Bangladesh delegation led by Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar to the IPU assembly," the letter read.
The speaker and deputy speaker of the eighth parliament earlier travelled to some other countries to attend parliamentarians' conferences spending the entire fund of Tk 54 lakh form the Parliament Secretariat's itemised allocation for the purpose.
The speaker in March reallocated Tk 30 Lakh from other items of the budget to meet the expenditure for attending the IPU assembly in Cape Town, and if necessary for other tours, sources in the Parliament Secretariat said.
According to information available on the official website of IPU, role of parliaments in striking a balance between national security, human security and individual freedom, their role in averting threats to democracy, and parliamentary oversight of state policies on foreign aid will be discussed in the assembly, while a general debate on political, economic and social situation in the world will also be held with an overall theme of pushing back the frontiers of poverty.