কোরাম পূরণের নূন্যতম সদস্যসংখ্যা কমানোর বিরুদ্ধে বঙ্গবন্ধু
৭ নভেম্বর ১৯৫৫
করাচী
The constituent assembly of Pakistan:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (East Bengal: Muslim): Really sir, this is adding insult to injury by reducing the quorum from 27 to 20. Honourable Sardar Amir Azam has already told the House that this Bill has been brought because the quorum is not formed when the House starts its meetings. The whole question is this. In the parliamentary procedure, so far as we know, in no country in the world we have less than 1/3rd as the quorum. Sir, we the members of this House, who are responsible to the people of the country, if we are not able to get 27 members to be present in the House then I think we should dissolve the House. It is no use sitting here. Why not raise the number of members to 30 to form the quorum? You are rather anxious to make the Constitution. That is what you have been telling the country that you are anxious to make the Constitution. It will be judged by the number of members present here. We members of the opposition are very anxious to make the Constitution for the country. The Government have announced to the world that they are also anxious to make the Constitution for the country in 2 to 3 months of time. Do you want 10 members of this House to make the constitution for the country? How is that possible? Therefore you must reduce the number of members from 27 to 20 to form the quorum. The real difficulty is that our leaders and members are Ministers, some of them are Governors. They have got dual powers, dual duties. They have got their secretariat, some have to go to Lahore as Ministers. The result is that when the House meets on any day, either the Minister is busy in the Secretariat and is not present, the Governor is not present, the Member who is a Minister at Lahore is not present and therefore no quorum can be formed. Now they want to reduce the number and make 20 as the quorum. Why make 20 and why not 5? Show to the world that we want to make the Constitution with 5 members I want to tell through you, Sir, that this is an insult to the representatives of the people of the country. Therefore I request them through you, Sir, that they should not push through this Bill that 20 should form the quorum. If you want to increase the number to form the quorum, we have no objection. With these few words, I oppose this Bill.
Reference:
Iqbal, S. (1997) Sheikh Mujib in Parliament (1955-58), p. 93-94, Dhaka, Agami Prakashani