DHAKA, March 16: In a rather unusual political development in Bangladesh, the Treasury and Opposition MPs on two parliamentary panels agreed unanimously on a couple of issues last week ? one is the retention of the authority of the individual lawmakers to move ?private members bills? in the House independently and the other is the enhancement of the status and privileges of legislators. In the first case, the individual MPs belonging to both the Treasury and Opposition benches of Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) got united when the minister for law suggested at the meeting on March 12 that ruling party MPs should take prior approval of the prime minister before submitting any bill to the committee.

The minister also told the meeting that he had already sent an official letter to the Speaker to that effect. The committee MPs, belonging to both the ruling party and the opposition, however, reacted to the minister?s move sharply. They argued that the existing rules of procedure describe all the Bills as ?private members bills?, while the Rules allow any MP to submit a bill for the consideration of the committees.