Parliament’s regular work was disrupted today after three urgent notices under Rule 71 could not be dealt with on time due to the absence of the relevant ministers and one MP.

Rule 71 allows MPs, with the speaker’s permission, to draw a minister’s attention to urgent public matters.

The sitting began with the question-answer session at about 3:05 pm, five minutes later than scheduled. After that, the House was due to discuss three accepted Rule 71 notices, which were addressed to Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam, and Disaster Management and Relief Minister Asadul Habib Dulu. One of the notices had been raised by ruling party MP Kamruzzaman Kamrul.

The first notice, submitted by BNP MP Zainul Abdin Farroque to the home minister, was taken up first. Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad asked him to read it, but then said the minister was not present and asked for some time.

The speaker then also said the second notice, meant for the road transport and bridges minister, could not be taken up because the minister was absent.

He later announced that all the notices would be postponed. Soon after, he called Sunamganj-1 MP Kamruzzaman Kamrul to present his notice, but the lawmaker was not in the chamber, so it also could not be discussed.

The notices were later brought back for discussion at around 4:20 pm.

During the session, Jamaat-e-Islami MP Mahbubur Rahman raised concern in a point of order, saying MPs should act more responsibly. He said yesterday’s sitting also started late and today’s session was delayed too. He asked that reasons for delays be clearly announced at the start of proceedings and stressed the need for better attendance.

Speaker Hafiz Uddin replied that the Deputy Speaker Kayser Kamal had already announced the 3:00 pm starting time the previous evening, but many MPs arrived late, causing the delay. He asked MPs to be on time in future.

Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni said parliament usually starts on time. He said yesterday’s delay was only about 10 minutes due to a parliamentary meeting and a state programme involving the prime minister, not half an hour as claimed. He also apologised for the delays.

The chief whip said the prime minister is in Jashore today, and many ministers and MPs are there with him, which affected their attendance in the parliament. He urged ruling party MPs to be punctual.

At the end of the discussion, the speaker reminded members that parliament’s work must take priority over all other government programmes.