The formal session of the 13th Parliament suffered a hiccup at the beginning of the new Speaker’s tenure due to a technical glitch, but the afternoon call to prayer (Zohr) saved him from further embarrassments.
After the election of Speaker Hafizuddin Ahmad and Deputy Speaker Kayser Kamal followed by their oath-taking ceremonies, the session started at 12:57pm. But the Speaker's microphone was found to be not working, leading to an awkward situation.
After repeated attempts to fix the issue, the Speaker was handed a microphone to speak.
As Speaker Hafizuddin Ahmad started to talk, Md Saiful Alam, an opposition MP elected from Dhaka-12, drew the attention of the Speaker and communicated to him that the MPs were still unable to hear anything in their earpieces, although he was audible on television.
“After 17 years, we finally have an effective Parliament, it will take some time to fix everything,” Hafiz Uddin Ahmad said wryly.
Right around then, the Zohr call to prayer started and the newly elected speaker promptly called for a prayer break declaring the session will start again after 20 minutes.