The chairman of the committee has the right to call the meeting. The rules of procedure stated that the meeting would be conducted as prescribed by the Speaker.
Sources said the meeting of the LGED parliamentary committee could not be held due to the absence of its chairman. If for any reason the meeting of the Committee is not held, the Speaker may ask the Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat to convene the meeting, but this practice is generally not followed.
Jatiya Party MLA Moshiur Rahman is a member of the parliamentary committee on local government, rural development and cooperatives. He told Prothom Alo that he did not know why the committee did not meet for so long. The absence of the chairman could be a reason behind this.
He said that some problems arise when the committee does not meet regularly and steps should be taken to hold the meeting.
Sources in the Parliament Secretariat said Khandekar Musharraf Hussain had last attended the 17th session of the Eleventh National Parliament on April 6. Since then there have been three more sessions, including the budget session, but he has missed all. Musharraf has not attended the Parliament session for 31 working days.
Musharraf was elected as a legislator for the second time in 2014 and became the Minister of Local Government. He was re-elected in 2018 but failed to become a minister this time. However, Musharraf was made the chairman of the parliamentary committee.
The police arrested Sajjad Hasan Barkat, the then president of Faridpur AL, and his brother Imtiaz Hasan Rubel, president of Faridpur Press Club, while conducting a special operation at Khandekar Musharraf’s house in Faridpur. Musharraf left for Dhaka on 9 June, two days after the drive. He went to Faridpur and stayed for a night on 14 July that year and again on 20 February 2021 to attend his aunt’s funeral. Since then he was not seen in Faridpur. Now he has no place in the politics of Faridpur.
