Five-member presidium named for 13th parliament sessions

A five-member praesidium has been nominated to conduct parliamentary sessions in the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker in the 13th National Parliament.

Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad announced the list in parliament on Thursday, reports UNB.

The praesidium includes Mirza Abbas Uddin Ahmed, MP for Dhaka-8; Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, MP for Dhaka-2; Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, MP for Narsingdi-1; Mohammad Monirul Haque Chowdhury, MP for Cumilla-6; and ATM Azharul Islam, MP for Rangpur-2.

Information about Abbas’s election from Dhaka-8, Roy’s Dhaka-2 seat and Moyeen’s Narsingdi-1 constituency has appeared in several reports.

The parliamentary identity of Monirul from Cumilla-6 has also been confirmed.

According to the announcement, “In the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker, the member whose name appears first among the Praesidium members present in the session will take the chair of the speaker.”

Under parliamentary procedure, Praesidium members are nominated in every parliament to preside over proceedings when both the speaker and deputy speaker are absent.

The first session of the 13th National Parliament began on Thursday under the chairmanship of senior MP Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.

After the election of the speaker and deputy speaker, the proceedings continued under the leadership of the newly elected speaker. The names of the Praesidium members were then announced as part of the parliamentary process.

The formal journey of the new parliament began earlier in the day with the election of the speaker and deputy speaker.

Later, when the session resumed following a microphone outage and a break, the nomination of the Praesidium was announced as part of organisational preparations to ensure the smooth functioning of the parliament.