Dhaka, Nov 17: Bangladesh's second largest opposition party, the Jatiya Party (JP), today said it would join the main opposition Awami League party in boycotting the current session of Parliament because of comments made by a government minister. "We will not join the ongoing session of parliament after the comments made by the minister over the monga (food shortage) in some parts of northern Bangladesh," Golam Mohammad Qader, a senior lawmaker of one JP faction, told reporters.
"We have to think if we will join future parliament sessions," he added.
The JP faction, headed by deposed Bangladeshi president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, has 14 MPs who walked out of the 300-seat assembly yesterday.
They were angered by a denial from state Minister for Disaster Management Ashadul Habib Dulu that the northern Rangpur district was suffering from food shortages.
Rangpur is Ershad's home district and majority of the JP members of parliament were elected from the region.
The Awami League, headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, has paralysed Parliament for nearly a year with a boycott begun partly in protest at another government minister's remarks against its leader.
Bureau Report