Leader of the Opposition Raushon Ershad has invited Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) executives to contest general elections and join Parliament as MPs to make their role ‘more effective’.
She made the ‘suggestion’ at a pre-budget discussion in Parliament with the TIB on Sunday where its Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman made suggestions regarding the next budget.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith is expected to present the 2014-15 budget in Parliament on Jun 4.
Raushon told the TIB officials: “You want a transparent and corruption-free society. We, too, are working for it.
“We want people like you to join us in Parliament as members, not as observers. That’s why we’re inviting you.”
She cut short Iftekharuzzaman, who apparently tried to sidestep the ‘invitation’.
“Your (TIB) role will be more effective if you come to Parliament [as MPs],” she told him.
Raushon’s Jatiya Party emerged as the opposition party in the 2014 parliamentary polls boycotted by the BNP.
Iftekharuzzaman had criticised the party, saying there was no opposition party in Parliament.
“There’s a ruling party in Parliament but what we understand to be an opposition party is absent,” he had said.
Reporters on Sunday asked him whether he felt the Jatiya Party would be able to fulfil its role of an opposition party.
“The opposition party will prove it. Those who claim themselves to be the opposition party or those who are being presented as one will have to prove it through their activities,” he said.
The Jatiya Party has 34 MPs in Parliament and three cabinet seats.
“The current opposition party is suffering from a sort of identity crisis and it is their responsibility to get out of the situation,” Iftekharuzzaman claimed.
He said the party could do it by “playing their role properly”.
“If they take part in the budget discussion and prove that they are indeed playing the role of an opposition party, misconception about them might be corrected,” the TIB executive director added.
Opposition Chief Whip Tajul Islam Chowdhury said the TIB did not doubt the party’s role.
“They told us to strongly play our role,” he said.
Source: bdnews24