Bangladesh’s parliament saw a dispute on Sunday over opposition participation in a special committee on constitutional amendment and the allocation of chairmanships of parliamentary standing committees. The governing side said the opposition would not receive committee chairmanships unless it nominated members to the constitutional amendment committee. The opposition reiterated that it would not join the committee and demanded chairmanships in proportion to its parliamentary seats under the July Charter.

Chief Whip Nurul Islam said the opposition had appeared willing to join the constitutional committee after discussions with opposition deputy leader Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher. Taher denied that account, saying the two issues should not be linked. He said the opposition had received members’ positions proportionate to its numbers but had not been given ministry-related committee chairmanships, apart from one parliament-related committee.

Following the disagreement, no new ministry-related parliamentary committees were formed as scheduled, though several committees were reconstituted. Deputy Speaker Kaiser Kamal urged both sides to work together in the national interest and proposed closed-door talks between senior leaders to resolve differences.