President Abdul Hamid on Friday called for making the standing committees on various ministries truly effective under the parliamentary system to ensure transparency and accountability of the government.
"Our parliament has overall three important duties and roles. Firstly, to represent the opinions of the society irrespective of class, profession and gender; secondly, to enact laws and control of public expenditure and thirdly, to ensure the accountability of the executive branch through supervision," he said.
"The transparency and accountability of the government can be ensured if the standing committees on various ministries can be made truly effective under the parliamentary system," he stated.
Hamid made the call in a memorial speech in the parliament to mark the 50th anniversary of the national legislature.
Observing that development and democracy advance in tandem, he said development and progress move forward if democracy prevails in the country. Again, development is hampered in absence of a democratic system.
He emphasized strengthening the democratic institutions and the democratic practices to flourish at the grassroots level if development is to be made permanent and sustainable.
"The development that occurs in the absence of democracy can never become universal. Such development becomes individual or group-centric. Immediately after returning to the country following his release from Pakistani jail, Bangabandhu started work on a coordinated development plan with the objective of economic emancipation of the people. He was able to raise the country from zero to a stable level in just three and a half years," he said.
President Hamid said the country would have become a developed and prosperous country a long time ago if Bangabandhu was not martyred at the hands of anti-liberation assassins on 15 August 1975. Development and democracy remained blockaded for many years after 1975.
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