DHAKA, Oct 19: Lawmakers from the main opposition party, Awami League, began to attend meetings of parliamentary standing committees on Tuesday, almost three years after the current parliament came into being on Oct 28, 2001.

"We will not give walkover to anybody. We will try our best to ensure transparency and accountability of the government through the committee system, senior lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta told reporters after attending a meeting of the committee on the law ministry.

The Awami League members had been staying off the meetings since being included in the panels in in September, 34 months after the current parliament came into being on Oct 28, 2001.

The delay was due to the government s refusal to give any committee chairmanships to the Awami League, on the one hand, and the opposition party s refusal to submit names of its members to be included in the committees on the other.

The opposition lawmakers got the nod from Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina on Monday evening to join meetings and they attended all the three meetings scheduled for Tuesday with enthusiasm.

Ruling party lawmakers welcomed the opposition to the meetings on the ministries of law, justice and parliamentary affairs, textiles and jute and establishment.

Parliament had constituted belatedly the standing committees on 39 ministries and other committees on parliamentary affairs in July 2003, keeping the Awami League slots vacant. The committees were reconstituted on Sept 16, 2004, slotting two members from the Awami League in each of those.

At the meeting on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, the Awami League rejected a bill on election to the women's reserved seat in parliament. Suranjit Sengupta, who attended the meeting, said the provisions proposed in the bill were contradictory to the constitution.