BNP joins parliament

Lawmakers of the main opposition BNP today (Monday) joined the Parliament after a lapse of 17 working days.

The party yesterday decided to get back in the House following an assurance from Speaker Abdul Hamid of “respectable seating arrangements in the House”.

Referring to the February 19 talks at the speaker's office, Chief Whip of the opposition Joynal Abedin Faruk yesterday said, “The treasury bench chief whip has assured that we will be given chairs of four parliamentary standing committees in line with our recommendations.

On January 28, the BNP lawmakers walked out of the parliament in protest against the new seating order in the front row in parliament.

Earlier on the day, Speaker Abdul Hamid re-arranged the seating order with four seats, instead of nine seats, allocated for the opposition BNP in the front row.