Monday, June 11, 2012

Speaker 'sorry' for MPs' rant,Bangladesh


BANGLADESH NEWS

A 'sorry' Speaker Abdul Hamid, on Sunday said 'un-parliamentary' remarks of the MPs criticising Bishwa Sahitya Kendra founder Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed will be deleted from proceedings.

He also criticised the news reports based on which the MPs had harshly criticised the noted litterateur on June 3 for making 'objectionable' remarks about the lawmakers and ministers.

"Some national dailies have shown a very irresponsible attitude by publishing such reports without checking the facts," Hamid said in a ruling in the beginning of the session.

Prof Ali Ashraf MP, who was presiding the session on June 3 in absence of the Speaker and his deputy Shawkat Ali, had asked Prof Sayeed to tender an unconditional apology for his alleged remarks made at a discussion organised by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) on June 2.

His call came after several MPs including ruling Awami League's Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Jatiya Party's Mujibul Haque Chunnu and independent MP Fazlul Azim criticised Sayeed citing Bengali daily Inqilab's report that he commented that 'MPs and ministers act like thieves and dacoits and breach oath'.

But Sayeed, later on the same night, termed the contempt of Parliament allegation 'completely baseless' and 'false' and said he would not apologise for remarks which he never made.

On the following day, TIB had sent a copy of his speech and a video footage of his address at the programme to Speaker Hamid.

The Speaker on Sunday said, "I read his speech's copy and watched the CD. I came to the conclusion that his speech and the report published on the newspaper are totally different."

He said the report was the root of the unexpected event.

"Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed is a respected personality of the country. The un-parliamentarian remarks made in the unscheduled discussion [in Parliament] will be expunged."

He also asked the news media to be more careful about news reports.  

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