Parties poles apart on parliament's upper house formation

There was no denying that bicameral parliament is crucial to representing diversity of society, political parties yet stood poles apart on modus operandi of the formation of the upper house.

The National Consensus Commission stated such dilemma after Monday's conclave with political parties on state-reform agenda undertaken by the post-uprising government for a fresh start to avert political crises hereafter.

The commission, however, broached two proposals in this regard, and some proposals were also made in discussion with the political parties. "These proposals need further discussion," it added.

Vice-chairman of the commission Prof Ali Riaz briefed journalists after the 13th day of a second-phase consultation between the political parties and the commission at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

"However, everyone agreed on permanently allocating 100 seats for women in the parliament," Prof Ali Riaz said, adding that in this case, too, there is still a methodological question.

"As a result, we have not yet reached a consensus on determining this method."

He also said that apart from this proposal, some other proposals also came up for discussion. Therefore, the commission has decided to continue the discussion to reconsider the issue.

Representatives of 30 political parties, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiya Nagorik Party or NCP, participated in the day's discussion with the National Consensus Commission.

BNP's Salahuddin Ahmed, who led the party delegation at the commission meeting, told reporters that some reform proposals forwarded by the reform commissions, including constitution-reform commission, "are almost impossible to implement".

However, they scrapped some of them amid disagreements among political parties, he added.

Political parties were yet to confirm 33-percent representation of women mainly due to the reality in society. He hopes it would gradually increase or exceed but "cannot be possible overnight".

Elected representation of women in parliament has yet to be realistic. It would be possible over time to elect women representatives but "not possible overnight".

"After further discussion if any acceptable proposal comes, then we will discuss it in the party's standing committee," he told the reporters.

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